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Biden-Putin Summit Underway In Geneva. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired June 16, 2021 - 07:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[07:30:00]

EVAN OSNOS, AUTHOR, "JOE BIDEN: THE LIFE, THE RUN, AND WHAT MATTERS NOW": -- down on dissent. So he's dealing with a counterparty here today, who is -- who can go either way in the sense that he can either be acting out of a sense of feeling empowered, or can be looking for those moments that might shore him up on the foreign stage. But what I think you just saw in that moment, that sort of key first public encounter in their new roles as President Biden, they've of course, met before.

But what you saw there was an effort to say, let's start this, at least in a spirit of what Joe Biden, of course, would describe as the possibility of getting something done. And that really reflects how he operates in Washington, and also how he operates on the world stage.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: And he does believe and I've covered him, and you've covered him for a long time, he does believe in a dialogue, a dialogue even with adversaries. And maybe nothing will come of it, maybe something will come of it, but he wants to have a serious conversation right now with the Russian leader, right?

OSNOS: He does. Look, he regards this as the beginning of a process. This is by no means the end of it. In fact, he thinks this is really about what we can say is setting the terms of engagement. Obviously, letting it be known that there is a new American president here who is not going to participate in some of the public spectacle that Vladimir Putin was able to enlist Donald Trump is into over the last four years.

You know, he is making it clear, look at the people in the room who he is with in this meeting. These are all serious practitioners with a lot of experience in Europe. Victoria Nuland, of course, also, you've got Tony Blinken, who has been as close to Joe Biden as ever.

One person I'd like to mention who's not in the room, but it's playing an important role in the background here is the CIA Director, Bill Burns, who is in the U.S. government today, the person who has spent more time looking at Vladimir Putin up close than anybody else. He's been a key part of the preparation for this process.

And Bill Burns, who was the U.S. Ambassador to Russia from 2005 to 2008, is one of the people who has helped shaped the American understanding of how Putin thinks. Bill Burns once wrote that understanding the Kremlin is as much about psychology as it is about geopolitics. And I think that's the sort of combination of powers that he's going into the room with, trying to think not only what's happening out in the world, but also what's happening between Vladimir Putin's ears, that's as much a part of this press.

BLITZER: Yes, we're told he spent a lot of time in recent days, President Biden, reviewing going through background briefings, speaking with all the top Russia experts in the U.S. government, and indeed some from outside the U.S. government, giving us a better sense of what possibly to anticipate during this Summit with Putin, right?

OSNOS: Yes. Well, the other people he's been talking to, of course, over the last week, are some of the foreign leaders that he encountered at the G7 at the NATO meeting. Angela Merkel, German Chancellor is, has his closer relationship, or at least is as clear and understanding of Vladimir Putin as anybody in European leadership today. We know that they spoke about how he should think about this meeting.

He's also, you know, he has been going back, as we've talked about going back his experience in the Soviet Union first and in Russia is substantial and specific. If you go back to 1979, when he made a trip to the Soviet Union, one of the patterns that we begin to see is that Biden is very comfortable telling people clearly if he thinks they're not telling him the truth, in that meeting, he sort of famously used a four letter word to challenge his Russian interlocutor, another senator in that delegation said that asked the translator, how did you translate that? The translator said, not literally.

So I think you can expect that Biden is prepared, as much as Vladimir Putin has a reputation for putting people a little bit off balance. Biden believes there can be some value in that, particularly if it clears away the diplomatic mist, lets the other person know that you're on to them, that you're thinking clearly about what they're doing out in the world. So I think you can assume that he has gone into this, you know, fully loaded. He knows both the short term and the long term issues.

And he's really, I think this is the key point to take away today, Wolf, is this is about him trying to understand what is going on in Vladimir Putin's mind. Is this about Russia genuinely trying to arrest this downward spiral in U.S. relations?

Or is this just about Putin trying to achieve some measure of visibility on the public stage? That's the key determination for them. If they see an opportunity to try to actually build something, as they say, more stable and predictable, that's the watchword of the week, I think you can expect to see that indicated in the -- in what comes out of the meeting, maybe some of the beginning of a dialogue about strategic stability.

That's going to be a sign that they were able to sense from Putin that he wants to do something different. They don't know going into it.

BLITZER: And you make an important point. President Biden goes into this meeting with President Putin with the strong backing of the G7 and NATO allies. That's why he met with them in the days leading up to this Summit. Evan Osnos, we'll stay in very close touch with you. Thank you very much.

John Berman, back to you.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, thanks so much, Wolf. And again, we're looking at this video from moments ago. That is the moment that President Biden shook hands with President Putin before walking into the Villa La Grange for the meeting, which by all measurements probably has already begun. I'm joined again by Max Boot and Bianna Golodryga. You know, Max, the discussion very much about the President and the future, the trappings individual -- visuals, something of the past here.

[07:35:21]

MAX BOOT, SR. FELLOW, COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS: Yes, no, this looks very much like the classic superpower Summits that we've gotten used to over many decades. And it's a little bit inappropriate, because Putin no longer leads a superpower.

Russia is much diminished from the days of the Cold War. But, you know, just watching the trappings, it also just fills me with sadness, because it takes me back to the Reagan-Gorbachev meetings or the Bush- Gorbachev meetings. And then, of course, the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, the rise of Yeltsin and the hopes for Russian democracy and understanding that the person that Biden is meeting with is somebody who has hijacked the country. He has hijacked it for his own personal ends.

And, of course, you know, they are having a diplomatic exchange. So you sometimes have to deal with people that you don't like. And clearly, Biden knows the truth about Putin. But it just bears emphasizing, again, that this is -- there is no equivalence between these two men. One of them is the democratically elected leader of the greatest country in the world.

The other one is a thug, a killer, a corrupt kleptocrat, who rules over his country and is so afraid of opposition that he has jailed in horrible conditions, the leading opposition figure in Russia. I mean, that's the reality. And you have to deal with it. But, you know, these superpower trappings can distract --

BERMAN: Hang on one second. Hang on. Let's listen in. This is the beginning of the meeting.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(INAUDIBLE)

VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Mr. President, I'd like to thank you for your initiative to meet today. I know that you've been on a long tour and you're having a lot of work. Still, the U.S. and Russian relations have a lot of issues accumulated that require the highest level meeting. And I hope that our meeting will be productive.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Thank you. As I said outside, I think that it's always better to meet face to face.

(INAUDIBLE)

BIDEN: (INAUDIBLE) mutual interest, cooperate.

(INAUDIBLE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Not in front of the camera.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. Not in front of the camera. No, no, no.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can't see.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sorry, sir.

(INAUDIBLE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you move, because I can't get a shot of both of them. Can you move because we can't get a shot? And I can't do this.

(INAUDIBLE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, can you move?

(INAUDIBLE)

[07:40:08]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know, I know, I know. That guy has got to move.

(INAUDIBLE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. Your way.

(INAUDIBLE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, it's over, it's over. Guys, it's over.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's go.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You two, you go away. Please.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can't move because --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go away. Go away. I ask you to go away please.

(INAUDIBLE)

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: All right. Well, that was a pretty awkward photo opportunity at the start of this meeting. The audio was hard to hear the only thing I could hear translation of Putin, saying I hope our meeting will be productive.

But you could see various lines of photographers and camera people, reporters, were allowed to go through take various pictures of these leaders together with the Secretary of State of the United States and the Foreign Minister of Russia. But Clarissa I don't know if you got anything out of that. I did see the face of Putin. He looked very stern.

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Stern? I thought he almost looked solid. It was extraordinary. There was no congeniality, not that we expected them to be hugging it out, but neither side was talking to the other.

They were both sitting there. Putin slightly like this, very stern, and it was very uncomfortable, frankly, basic silence, and few words about having a productive discussion. But we're so used to seeing in those moments, world leaders, at least go through the motions of small talk, right? How was your flight? How are you? You know, I hope we have a productive session. Even though there was a nod to that, it felt very uncomfortable.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: It was so uniform, it struck me as deliberate, because --

WARD: Yes.

SCIUTTO: -- it was Biden and Putin and Blinken and Lavrov that they were stern faced --

WARD: No eye contact.

SCIUTTO: Putin almost looked like a teenager brought to a dinner by his parents who didn't want to be there, you know, kind of legs apart. But that's message sending, right? And these, as we were saying earlier, Summits are about moments. And this is one of those moments. And the message here seems to be we have some serious things to talk about, right? We don't know how that's going to go. But we are here. But deliberate.

And by the way, Joe Biden likes to smile. And he did smile out on the steps, right? In that room, deliberately like Putin stern.

WARD: Very serious.

BLITZER: Yes. And whoever organized that photo opportunity, did not necessarily do a great job, because you could barely hear anything, you know, photographers, they want to get pictures so they're in there. And I assumed various groups were brought in, U.S. group, a Swiss Group, a Russian group, one at a time. But it was a pretty awkward photo opportunity. All of us have covered these kinds of moments and that one was, I shall say, strange.

WARD: And you understand why they don't want the press in the room? Why so little of what is actually going to be discussed has actually been shared with us, because everyone is poring over the details of who looks like what and who's conceding and who's winning. It's really important for them now to be able to close the door on journalists and have a really serious substantive conversation.

SCIUTTO: To draw another contrast, the body language, the atmosphere between Trump and Putin was very different. There were smiles. You remember Putin making an offhand comment about, no, I won't, you know, interfere in your elections, again, kind of like a joke, right, which the Trump administration officials would bring up as a time that he confronted him on election interference, this one, both of them straight back, looking very seriously.

Yet one more contrast, and again, none of this is accidental. That's a contrast that appears President Biden and his administration want to strike in terms of a new, if not more confrontational approach to Russia, a new, more steadfast, right? They're not going to stand by as these malign activities go forward.

BLITZER: Let me bring Kaitlan Collins, our chief White House correspondent into this conversation. Kaitlan, what do you think of that photo opportunity?

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hey, guys. What did you say?

BLITZER: I don't know if you can hear me, Kaitlan. Can you hear me?

COLLINS: Hey, Wolf, I can hear you.

BLITZER: I don't think Kaitlan can hear me. We're going to try to reconnect with Kaitlan. All right, go ahead. All right, Kaitlan, good. Tell me, you were listening. You were watching that awkward photo opportunity. What do you think?

COLLINS: It was awkward. It seemed like they wanted the press to leave a little bit sooner than they did as they had, people continuing to come in, Wolf, and take those pictures. And we should note, this is the only chance we believe we are going to be seeing these two world leaders sit down in this meeting like this. So far if you look at the schedule until later on today when they do hold their separate press conferences, this is the only access that the press is going to get to see inside the room as these leaders are meeting together, of course, for the first time since Biden has taken office.

[07:45:18]

And you see who is in the room there. The Secretary of State Tony Blinken is seated to President Biden's right. On the other side is his Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Lavrov, and of course, the two leaders right there in the middle, not really looking at each other or saying much beyond President Putin saying he hopes it's a productive meeting. Of course, that is something that the White House has said as well.

But you can't really get a good feel of how these meetings are going to go until they've actually happened. And so this will start and then the meeting will expand to include President Biden's national security adviser, the U.S. ambassador to Russia, a few others. Russia has brought their top Syria expert here to this meeting. So that is obviously something that is likely to be on the table.

And so we are expecting several hours of meetings there, they are just a few feet away from where we are standing now. But we are not expecting cameras to be able to actually go into the room for the rest of these meetings as they stretch on however long they may be, it could be four or five hours, Wolf, or it could be much longer.

BLITZER: Or potentially it could be much shorter, depending on what's going on as well. Jeff Zeleny, let me get your thoughts. What do you think?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, certainly the -- we've talked about that these two leaders have met before, but it was some 10 years ago. So now just as setting the context here for this discussion, President Biden, 78 years old, Vladimir Putin, 68 years old, have both spent a lifetime of this work.

But reading that body language, who knows, this could be a shorter Summit. Or perhaps that was just the two leaders being annoyed by that scrum of photographers from the Russian side and the U.S. side, really creating a bit of a racket in there, as we've all seen these happen inside the Oval Office or indeed anywhere around the world.

But beyond that, let's not read too much into that very awkward moment there, we did see President Biden smile for a moment and try to make a bit of small talk. I could hear him say he's looking for something in our mutual interest.

But now the meeting begins. Now all of the work that President Biden has been doing leading up to this moment in Geneva, again, so important his conversations with world leaders, particularly German Chancellor Angela Merkel, spent a lot of time with her at the G7. And then again at the NATO in Brussels earlier this week talking about Putin, talking about shared interest and what goals can come out of this.

So I am told that in this meeting, in particular, were just the two leaders and Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, they will be talking more I'm told about shared areas of potential interest, at time for the two men to take one another's temperature and also give a hard line on cyber. But the more, you know, extensive conversations will come from both of their aides when the meetings happen later in the day.

So Wolf, what is different about right now I can tell you, I'm just not far from you here in Geneva, the utter silence in the air on a very, very warm day, far different from 1985 when Ronald Reagan was meeting Mikhail Gorbachev here on a blustery cold November day. So temperatures nearly 90 degrees here, the sun is shining. But inside of Villa La Grange, those two leaders now having a conversation, we'll see how long this first that goes, there'll be a bit of a break, and then followed by the second act.

But again, before President Biden leaves from Geneva to fly back to Washington, we will hear him frame this discussion. So we could be watching this, watching the tea leaves. And Wolf, talking to White House officials, which I've been doing over the last several moments, they are watching as well. This is one of the rare times when, you know, back in Washington and indeed here with the people traveling with the President. They are certainly waiting with anticipation of what is happening inside the room. But for now, at least, certainly we know the issues being discussed. And now we just have to wait. Wolf?

BLITZER: We did hear the Russian President say I hope our meeting will be productive. Well, we all hope this meeting will be productive, because so much so much as it says not only for these two countries, but indeed for the world. All right, we're going to get back to all of you. John Berman, let's go over to you right now.

BERMAN: All right, I'm here with Max Boot and Bianna Golodryga. And Bianna, I did hear President Biden say that it's always better to meet face to face. And then he also says something very specific. He said he looks forward to a relationship that is more predictable and more rational, a more predictable rational discussion. It seems to me those are significant words predictable and rational. What do you think they mean in this context?

BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN SENIOR GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, if you look at Vladimir Putin's actions over the last few years, he is anything but predictable and rational in particular over the past six months internally within Russia.

So I think from the U.S. President standpoint, look, if we were approaching many other countries, even if we ones were like China, for example, where there is a lot of tension and China's clearly the number one adversary and threat that the U.S. sees moving forward, there is a intricately tied relationship, especially economically. With Russia, that is not the case. Russia and the U.S. don't have many strong economic ties. So in terms of -- let's go back to this.

[07:50:20]

BERMAN: Hold on, one second. OK, OK, I didn't mean to interrupt you there. But this was a rollback of the meeting before where you could hear their audio a little bit more where Vladimir Putin said he wanted to be productive. And then Joe Biden said he looked forward to a more predictable rational discussion. I'm sorry to interrupt you.

GOLODRYGA: Right. No, the audio quality definitely was not great there. It was an awkward few moments to watch. Look, in terms of where they can find mutual ground. I do think on areas like climate change, I think on Syria, perhaps humanitarian aid providing that corridor with that aid that's necessary for those Syrian refugees.

That's one area. But in terms of what Vladimir Putin already said, is a red line for him. That's anything domestically within his country that he is not going to be touching. That's anything involving human rights, that's involving Alexey Navalny.

Domestically, that is his weak spot. Internationally, yes, he would. He liked to have sanctions lifted, of course, what he liked to be welcome back to the G7, of course. But that haven't been said he is getting the platform that he desperately craves, the respect that he craves from the world stage right now, with this high profile meeting. At home, you have COVID once again, completely running rapid through the country. Moscow is on lockdown, only 12 percent of the country has been vaccinated.

There was just an order today that all federal government employees have to be vaccinated in Moscow. Inflation is running high. There's a lot of domestic issues that are more of a weak spot for him than internationally.

Would he like to have an appearance that he's a big global player? Yes. And he is. He is a nuclear country, right? And he knows this field and area very, very well. But I think he's drawn his red lines whether Biden can get from him what he wants, they will have a cordial meeting. I have no doubt. I'm not sure we're going to walk away from anything much, which is why the bar is set so low.

BERMAN: And they're setting it low. Look, the words they've used are productive, predictable, and irrational. Brianna Keilar, that is not exactly, you know, a festival of accomplishment here, but maybe an achievable goal over the next several hours.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, perhaps it will be. And actually we have some news to report. Let's get to Kaitlan Collins, who is there in Geneva. Kaitlan, I understand you have some new information about what has happened there in that room already.

COLLINS: Well, Brianna, you saw how chaotic it was there as the spray was just going on where the reporters and the cameras are in the room. And you can see reporters blocking the camera, people talking to each other, we're told it actually got incredibly tense between the two different press corps, which we should note are separated on the grounds here. We have the White House press corps, the American press corps, and the Russian press corps that are separated.

Of course, ahead of those joint or those separate press conferences later on, but it came pretty combative, the full American press corps did not actually make it into the room for that top spray, which we should note is the only access we believe we are going to get as they are actually meeting inside Villa La Grange for the next few hours.

And several U.S. reporters did not make it into the room, those reporters who were supposed to be in the room. And we're told there were some combative exchanges with the Russian press, there was pushing, and there was shoving, trying to get into that room. And that's why you saw the chaos there at the end of that meeting with President Biden and President Putin.

And we are told White House aides trying to get the full U.S. press corps in the room. They were unable to do so. And several of those reporters were left outside. At least one U.S. press reporter did make it into the room. She asked the two leaders if they trust one another. And according to her, she says that President Biden shook his head, yes, when she asked if he trusted Putin.

KEILAR: So how many reporters were left outside, Kaitlan? Do we have a sense of this? Just give us a sense of what that traveling press pool would look like on the American side? And who was left out?

COLLINS: So the point of a pool for those who aren't really familiar with the term is it's so that there is one representative for every medium who goes into the room. So there are dozens of us trying to get into the room in a small space like this.

So there's one person representing television, one person with a camera, one print reporter, a radio, and so forth. And so it's usually about 15 reporters that actually go into the room, in addition to photographers. And several of them were left out of the room, could not actually get in there to take a picture or to ask a question of the two leaders as they sat down.

And we're told it started before they even actually made it into the building. There was pushing and shoving and yelling happening outside as all of these reporters were trying to get inside to go in and see these two leaders sitting down with one another even though of course, not all of them are sanctioned to be there.

And so aids were trying to sort out who could go in and who was not supposed to go in and ended up with several White House reporters, several U.S. press being left out of that room as that reaction between Biden and Putin just happened moments ago.

[07:55:03]

KEILAR: Well, I mean, that is really something at what is such a key moment in this Summit between Putin and Biden. Kaitlan, thank you so much. John Harwood I want to ask you about that, you know, you and I, we have been part of the pool at times. It is pretty amazing that folks got left out.

JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: You know, the stakes are pretty high in sessions like that. Security officials don't care about the norms of press access. And so when you have two countries that are at odds with one another, you have security services, protecting those leaders. They don't particularly care about the sensibilities or the what's happening physically with American reporters and to say, I'm cool, let me in. They don't care.

KEILAR: Well, it's -- I mean, look, I will say not to give too much away when someone is cool, it is clear they are cool. They're supposed to be let in. Security knows that, even though sometimes they get in the way. John Harwood, thank you so much.

Our special coverage of this really historic Summit between Vladimir Putin and President Joe Biden will continue in just a moment from Switzerland.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: Good morning to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. I'm John Berman.

KEILAR: And I am Brianna Keilar along with Wolf Blitzer who is live with us in Geneva, Switzerland. BLITZER: There certainly is a lot going on over here guys. High stake Summit between President Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin, it is now officially underway. As you saw, it started just moments ago with a handshake as the two leaders and their top aides are gathered at the iconic Villa La Grange here in Geneva. This could be a long and possibly rather contentious meeting. It's expected to last we're told at least four to five hours.

Putin expressing hopes that the meeting will be productive. Biden's suggesting the two would work in areas of mutual interest. CNN correspondents have every angle covered of this historic event. Let's begin with CNN's Natasha Bertrand. Natasha, so what do we know first of all about this meeting? Who is in there? How is it structured? Give us a little background.

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes, Wolf. So this first meeting will take place between President Biden, President Putin, and two of their top foreign policy national security aides that's Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. After a couple hours or so they will expand that meeting and each side will have about five aides accompanying them for these expanded talks. And then of course after that there will be separate press conferences.

[08:00:09]