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“Putin is expected to arrive at 7 a.m. ET. Biden arrives shortly afterward. The closed-door meeting is expected to last four to five hours. Putin will give his own press conference. Then Biden will… https://www.npr.org/2021/06/16/1005679092/what-you-need-to-know-about-bidens-meeting-with-putin. “U.S. and Russian officials said there would likely be four to five hours of talks. The agreed-upon format includes an initial session with the two leaders along with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, and then further discussions with an expanded group. A senior Biden administration official [Blinken?] told reporters en route to Geneva that one potential outcome Wednesday is reversing the recall of each country’s ambassador. https://www.voanews.com/usa/biden-putin-set-geneva-talks

Will Putin and Lavrov thank Blinken-Biden for waiving the Nord Stream 2 pipeline sanctions? Since Nord Stream 2 is registered in Switzerland, will their CEO, former Stasi Agent-friend of Putin, Matthias Warnig, thank them too?

What else will they be offering Putin and why?

Will they waive sanctions against Arctic oil and gas drilling?

Will they waive sanctions against Black Sea oil and gas drilling?

What else?

Why are they promoting the Russia oil and gas industry, while opposing the US oil and gas industry?

Blinken’s step-father was Sam Pisar who was an advocate of doing business in the USSR, as well as Russia: “how did Occidental Petroleum negotiate seven agreements with the Soviet Union?’ Our Chairman of the Board, Dr. Armand Hammer, and Mr. Pisar went to Russia in early 1973, and as a result of these early visits, negotiated what we in Occidental call a global agreement.” See: “Some Experiences of Occidental Petroleum in Negotiating Cooperation Agreements in the U.S.S.R.” International Lawyer, Vol. 10. No. I, p. 41: https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/216912102.pdf

This is a true Russiagate scandal: Biden canceled a US (Keystone XL) pipeline, yet Biden-Blinken waived sanctions on a Russian pipeline to Europe (Nord Stream 2).

No mention of his present to Putin in Biden’s propaganda rag, which was previously Voice of America (see article at blog post bottom). Nor are Blinken’s connections to Russia and the USSR examined.

Trump arranged to sell US liquified natural gas to Poland, whereas Biden-Blinken gave the OK to Russia’s NordStream 2 pipeline, while shutting down the Keystone pipeline. Who is really in bed with Russia is now starkly clear, especially considering Blinken’s stepfather, Sam Pisar’s love of Russian language and culture, and that he was one of the foremost advocates of doing business with the USSR during the Cold War, and helped businesses do business there.

Unlike Blinken-Biden, the Trump Administration refused to give Exxon a sanctions waiver to do new drilling in Russia, and even fined them: “Statement from Secretary Mnuchin on OFAC Sanctions April 21, 2017 Washington— In consultation with President Donald J. Trump, the Treasury Department will not be issuing waivers to U.S. companies, including Exxon, authorizing drilling prohibited by current Russian sanctions.” https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-release/sm0052 The US Treasury, under Trump, fined Exxon $2 million for doing business with a sanctioned Russian: https://home.treasury.gov/system/files/126/20170720_exxonmobil.pdf

“The Rosneft-Exxon team had begun drilling in the Arctic’s Kara Sea, but that work stopped when former President Barack Obama imposed sanctions against Moscow in 2014, following the Kremlin’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine. The energy group also had agreed to look for shale oil in western Siberia and in the deep waters of the Black Sea, the area where Exxon is now seeking a waiver from sanctions…. The Associated Press reported that ExxonMobil, which is based in Irving, Texas, filed documents in 2015 and 2016 disclosing that it had received three licenses from the Treasury Department, through its Office of Foreign Assets Control, authorizing the company to conduct “limited administrative actions” with Rosneft [i.e. waivers under Obama-Biden]… The original Exxon-Rosneft drilling project in the Arctic was halted by a U.S. order prohibiting American companies from transferring advanced technology used to drill offshore and in shale formations. The head of Rosneft, Exxon’s partner, also was personally blacklisted by the U.S. action. Exxon estimated in 2015 that its potential losses from the Rosneft venture could amount to $1 billion“ Greenpeace USA said that “Removing barriers to Exxon drilling in the Russian Black Sea with a state-controlled company like Rosneft would not only jeopardize global progress on climate change and provide momentum for a similar waiver in the Russian Arctic…” Meanwhile six US Senators wrote: “We are extremely concerned that Rosneft’s control of a major U.S. energy supplier could pose a grave threat to American energy security,” in an April 4 (2017) letter to the U.S. Treasury secretary. https://www.voanews.com/usa/us-politics/exxon-seeks-waiver-us-sanctions-resume-russian-oil-work

Four years after being shot by a Berniecrat Dem, who believed the Trump-Russiagate lies, US Congressman Scalise discusses Biden shutting down US jobs related to the oil and gas industry, while Biden-Blinken green-lighted Nord-Stream to benefit Russia and increase European dependence upon Russia: “Steve Scalise, House Republican Leadership Press Conference”,June 15, 2021… https://youtu.be/cGqFeMNQjSM

“Four Years Later”: https://youtu.be/oAjiNAL47-A

Only a few days before Scalise was shot, Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) shipments from Scalise’s home state of Louisiana arrived in Poland, which reduced their dependence on the very same Russian natural gas that Biden-Blinken are now promoting: “Statement by Rick Perry, U.S. Secretary of Energy, on LNG Shipments to the Netherlands & Poland” June 9, 2017 https://www.energy.gov/articles/statement-rick-perry-us-secretary-energy-lng-shipments-netherlands-poland https://miningawareness.wordpress.com/2021/05/22/real-russiagate-blinken-biden-waived-us-sanctions-on-russias-nord-stream-pipeline-ex-stasi-friend-of-putin-blinkens-russophile-step-father-helped-people-do-business-in-the-s/

Biden-Blinken pretend to care about the environment, but they are really promoting Russian natural gas to compete against US natural gas. The oil and gas industry is detrimental to the environment everywhere. However, there’s been no serious consideration of how to transition from dependence. It’s not just jobs. It’s taxes, including severance taxes, and small landowners and farmers, who are dependent upon royalties to pay property tax, health insurance, etc. None of these factors are being addressed – perhaps because the Dem elites don’t want anyone to have property, except themselves. Instead of wasting hundreds of millions upon hundreds of millions on pork barrel, including gain-of-function research, they could help small landowners, during the transition to renewables, like the US government has paid farmers not to farm (in the past and perhaps sometimes still today).

The Russian government is highly dependent upon oil and gas revenues and they aren’t even pretending to change that. Apparently that’s ok with Biden-Blinken. They are totally cool with Russia getting oil and gas revenues, just not with Americans getting oil and gas revenues. They are totally cool with Europe being even more dependent upon Russia for energy.

People need to start looking for more details on Blinken’s step-father’s business in the Soviet Union (and elsewhere); how long he was Robert Maxwell’s lawyer and “confidant”, and his relationship to Jeff Epstein. Robert Maxwell’s daughter, Ghislaine, is almost the same age as Tony Blinken, both lived in Paris, and their fathers had a professional and apparently personal relationship. (Blinken’s sister, Leah Pisar, worked for Bill Clinton. Clinton visited the USSR during Christmas-New Year break (1969-70).

Blinken’s stepfather was a strong advocate of US-Soviet and US-Russian ties, took western business people to the Soviet Union to make deals and was Robert Maxwell’s lawyer. Maxwell seems to have been engaged in corrupt dealings in the Eastern Bloc-Soviet Union in both the communist and post-communist period.

Whatever is in Blinken’s book on the Reagan era Soviet pipeline came directly or indirectly from his stepfather. Even the style appears to be similar to Samuel Pisar, based upon this 1988 critique of Blinken’s book by Patrick J. DeSouza: “writing about the response of the Western alliance to the Soviet Pipeline crisis, one would expect a chapter exploring theoretical questions about the geopolitical interests of the alliance vis-a-vis the Soviet Union… Blinken does not develop this theoretical analysis. He spends a great deal of time setting out the internal divisions within the Western alliance and not enough on how these divisions relate to the common goal of a preferred public order that the alliance was designed to achieve.” See: “Review Essay- For Whom the Bell Tolls: The Soviet Gas Pipeline Crisis and the Making of International Law ALLY VERSUS ALLY: AMERICA, EUROPE, AND THE SIBERIAN PIPELINE CRISIS”. By Antony J. Blinken.t New York and Westport, Connecticut: Praeger Publishers-Greenwood Press, 1987. Pp. x, 193., Yale J of International Law, Vol. 13:199, 1988 https://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1520&context=yjil (DeSouza notes that Blinken’s book started as an undergrad thesis at Harvard.)

See: http://euromaidanpress.com/2021/06/12/mitigating-the-nord-stream-2-impact-on-ukraine/

This document by Blinken’s stepfather appears to be largely descriptive, as well. He also pretends to think that sanctions are good. However, he seems to use the excuse that since sanctions are only effective if everyone abides by them, then there isn’t a point in doing them. Pisar apparently had the preconceived notion that he wanted to do trade with the communist countries, so used description and the sort of double-speak that Blinken is using: “A New Look at Trade Policy Toward the Communist Bloc, The Elements of a Common Strategy for the West, Materials Prepared for the Subcommittee on Foreign Economic Policy of the Joint Economic Committee, US Senate, 1961, By Samuel Pisar https://www.jec.senate.gov/reports/87th%20Congress/A%20New%20Look%20at%20Trade%20Policy%20Toward%20the%20Communist%20Bloc%20(194).pdf (Note that our opinion of the document is based upon scanning through it and upon things that we have found in general reading about Pisar. Note the presence of Prescott Bush and of Clinton mentor Fulbright. Always read and judge for yourself. )

Of course, Exxon is still pumping oil in the Russian far east. They own 1/3rd of Sakhalin I and are the operators of the project: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sakhalin-I They may want additional projects, which were stopped and sanctioned after Russia invaded Crimea: “In April 2017, Donald Trump’s administration denied a request from ExxonMobil to allow it to resume oil drilling in Russia… In July 2017, ExxonMobil filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration challenging the finding that the company violated sanctions imposed on Russia.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ExxonMobil#2000_to_present

The CEO of Nord Stream is Matthias Warnig, Putin’s ex-Stasi officer friend from his KGB days in Germany: “Circles of power: Putin’s secret friendship with ex-Stasi officer/ After revelations of Russian president’s links to former chancellor Gerhard Schröder, investigation sheds light on relationship with influential German businessman” https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/13/russia-putin-german-right-hand-man-matthias-warnig

Biden-Blinken pretended to sanction the Nord Stream pipeline and the head of Nord Stream, Matthias Warnig, only to immediately give them a sanctions waiver! Warnig is a former East German Stasi officer and friend of Putin from his KGB days in Germany. Blinken wrote this big fat lie: “I have determined that it is in the national interest of the United States to waive the application of sanctions on Nord Stream 2 AG, its CEO Matthias Warnig, and Nord Stream 2 AG’s corporate officers.” !!!

Biden Secretary of State Blinken’s step-father, Samuel Pisar, was a fan of Russian language and culture; and worked as a lawyer helping businessmen do business in the USSR, when almost no one did business there. He wanted Russia and the US to be allies, and apparently counted on his son Tony Blinken and daughter Leah Pisar to help that come to pass. Blinken appears to be a creation of Samuel Pisar and even Jeff Epstein may be a creation of Pisar. Pisar was apparently the brains behind Blinken and Blinken may just be running on automatic, since Pisar’s death – if Blinken is as brainless as he appears.

Blinken grew up in Paris with step-father Samuel Pisar. In a 2010 interview, Pisar explains that he wrote his dissertation on the possibility of economic, political and human relations between the US and the USSR; that he worked very hard in the area of ​​trade and investment between East and West; that he advised and went to Moscow with David Rockefeller, and Armand Hammer. Pisar met with Brezhnev, Kosygin, Gorbachev, Yeltsin and Putin. He hoped that Russia and America will resume political and economic relations, and be allies, as they were during World War II.

In 1982, the New York Times described Blinken’s step-father, Samuel Pisar, as “a Paris-based international lawyer specializing in Soviet trade…” In that article, Samuel Pisar called the USSR “the last new commercial frontier.’ It offers the West raw materials while needing Western machinery and factories. The huge scale of Soviet industrial projects particularly suits big American corporations.” See: “Despite East-West Chill, Trade May Grow” By Paul Lewis, Dec. 5, 1982, New York Times https://archive.md/fnMSp#selection-489.622-489.700

Pisar apparently operated at a very high level: “Samuel Pisar, an international lawyer who accompanied Hammer and his wife to Moscow, said in a telephone interview from his home in Paris that he had no knowledge of any cash briefcase or other or other manipulations involving the Goya but recalled vividly the tears in the eyes of the Soviet President, Leonid Brezhnev, as he accepted the Lenin letters.” See: “Armand Hammer’s Maze of Skulduggery“, Oct 14, 1996 The New York Times https://archive.md/CsEXR

In 1972, the New York Times reported: “Samuel Pisar, an international lawyer and expert on EastWest trade who has been virtually commuting to Moscow recently on behalf of major banks and corporations that are his clients… we are all pro‐East‐West‐trade people who always wanted normalized relations and still do.” See: “Many U. S. Jews Are Torn Over Trading With Soviet”, By Marylin Bender, NYT, Oct. 16, 1972 https://archive.md/Dbkgp

“How did Occidental Petroleum negotiate seven agreements with the Soviet Union?” Our Chairman of the Board, Dr. Armand Hammer, and Mr. Pisar went to Russia in early 1973, and as a result of these early visits, negotiated what we in Occidental call a global agreement.” See: Guffey, A. (1976). “Some Experiences of Occidental Petroleum in Negotiating Cooperation Agreements in the U.S.S.R“. The International Lawyer, 10(1), 41-44 https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/216912102.pdf

“FOREIGN AFFAIRS; Soviets Buy American”, The New York Times, May 10, 1989 “In what he calls “the cola wars,” the international lawyer Sam Pisar got special rights for Coca-Cola to supply the 1980 Moscow Olympics…” https://archive.md/n3Ofq

“Russia’s Nord Stream 2 Pipeline: Will Sanctions Stop It?” https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IF/IF11138/5

According his obituary in The Scotsman, Samuel Pisar was “the longtime lawyer and confidant” of Robert Maxwell. He “was one of the last people to speak to Maxwell, by phone, probably an hour before the chairman of Mirror Group Newspapers fell off his luxury yacht the Lady Ghislaine on 5 November, 1991…” Interestingly, Pisar’s obituary said that after World War II he was a “black marketeer and self-described “hooligan” in the American-occupied zone of Germany.” He stole cigarettes and coffee from American troops and sold them to Germans, and made enough money to buy a BMW motorbike. An aunt helped send him to Australia “to mend his reckless ways”. He stated that if he had remained in Europe, he “might have become a terrorist or gangster.” See: “Obituary: Samuel Pisar, lawyer and holocaust survivor Born 18 March, 1929, in Bialystok, Poland. Died: 27 July, 2015 in Manhattan, New York City, aged 86” By Phil Davison https://archive.md/4hJ0W And, so, did he “become a terrorist or gangster” when he returned to Europe?

“DECEMBER 11, 2019 (Washington,DC) – Tonight, the Senate and House Armed Services Committees released the conference report for the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2020, which includes U.S. Senators Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) bipartisan bill imposing devastating, targeted sanctions on those involved in installing Russia’s Nord Stream 2. If completed, this natural gas pipeline would vastly strengthen President Vladimir Putin at the expense of the rest of the free world. The House and Senate are expected to vote on the NDAA later this month…” https://www.shaheen.senate.gov//news/press/final-ndaa-2020-includes-shaheen-cruz-bill-to-stop-russias-nord-stream-2-pipeline

Senator Cruz, Dec. 12, 2019: “I rise today to celebrate yet another major bipartisan victory that is included as part of the National Defense Authorization Act that the House has passed and the Senate is preparing to pass.

“As it so happens, today is the one-year anniversary – the one year to the very day – that the European Parliament voted overwhelmingly to condemn the construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline between Russia and Germany.

“By a vote of 433-105, the members of the European Parliament called for the project to be cancelled because, ‘It is a political project that poses a threat to European energy security and the efforts to diversify energy supply.’

“In the coming days, the United States Congress will answer the call to stop this profoundly dangerous project.

“The House has acted and the Senate will act very soon. As part of the National Defense Authorization Act, sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline are included — the Cruz-Shaheen legislation. […] I introduced bipartisan legislation. Senator Shaheen and I, and the Foreign Relations Committee brought our legislation to a vote. We won an overwhelming bipartisan vote — a vote of 20-2 out of the Foreign Relations Committee.

“And in the past weeks and months, there have been extended negotiations to include this legislation, these sanctions, in the National Defense Authorization Act.

“We have negotiated with Republicans and Democrats – Republicans and Democrats on the Senate Armed Services Committee, on the Foreign Relations Committee, on the Banking Committee, in leadership, and also Republicans and Democrats on the House Armed Services Committee, Foreign Relations, Banking, [and] leadership. And we’ve achieved a remarkable consensus.

“Part of the reason we were able to achieve this bipartisan victory is that the sanctions are narrowly targeted — precisely targeted. The Nord Stream 2 pipeline is a pipeline from Russia to Germany to carry natural gas that if completed, would generate billions of dollars for Putin. Billions of dollars that would fund Russian military aggression.

“Not only that, but this pipeline – if completed – would make Europe even more dependent on Russian energy. Even more vulnerable to Russian blackmail. Putin has demonstrated he is more than willing to cut off the gas in the dead of winter, as economic blackmail against his neighbors.

“This pipeline is being built this very moment. It is near completion…” https://www.cruz.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=4818

“Nord Stream 2 and European Energy Security 
PRESS STATEMENT
ANTONY J. BLINKEN, SECRETARY OF STATE
MAY 19, 2021
Today, the Department of State submitted a report to Congress pursuant to the Protecting Europe’s Energy Security Act (PEESA), as amended, listing four vessels, five entities, and one individual involved in construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, including Nord Stream 2 AG and the company’s CEO Matthias Warnig.  

Persons identified in the report are subject to sanctions pursuant to PEESA unless waived.  As a result of such sanctions on the entities listed in the PEESA report, the four vessels listed in the report and nine additional vessels owned or controlled by the Federal State Budgetary Institution Marine Rescue Service that are involved in the Nord Stream 2 pipeline’s construction, will also be subject to sanctions.

Furthermore, I have determined that it is in the national interest of the United States to waive the application of sanctions on Nord Stream 2 AG, its CEO Matthias Warnig, and Nord Stream 2 AG’s corporate officers.

Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) also anticipates issuing guidance allowing for the continuation of various transactions and activities involving the Marine Rescue Service that are unrelated to Nord Stream 2 construction – including on a range of search and rescue, environmental, and other missions.

Today’s actions demonstrate the Administration’s commitment to energy security in Europe, consistent with the President’s pledge to rebuild relationships with our allies and partners in Europe.  We will continue to oppose the completion of this project, which would weaken European energy security and that of Ukraine and Eastern flank NATO and EU countries.  Our opposition to the Nord Stream 2 pipeline is unwavering.  Though we may not always agree, our alliances remain strong, and our position is in line with our commitment to strengthen our Transatlantic relationships as a matter of national security“. https://www.state. gov/nord-stream-2-and-european-energy-security/ https://archive.md/oke2s

What? Blah, blah, blah. Blinken waived the sanctions and then says that they “will continue to oppose the completion of this project” Blah, blah, blah.

More blah, blah, blah. They probably cut a deal to help Exxon drill the Arctic and will iron out the details today.

“Secretary Blinken’s Meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov
READOUT
OFFICE OF THE SPOKESPERSON
MAY 19, 2021
The below is attributable to Spokesperson Ned Price:
Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken met today with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on the margins of the Arctic Council Ministerial.  The Secretary noted that the United States sought a more stable and predictable relationship with Moscow.  To that end, Secretary Blinken and Foreign Minister Lavrov discussed Russia’s Arctic Council Chairmanship and the importance of cooperation given our shared stake in the region.  The Secretary also reiterated President Biden’s resolve to protect U.S. citizens and act firmly in defense of U.S. interests in response to actions by Russia that harm us or our allies.  The Secretary made clear that Russia should release American citizens Paul Whelan and Trevor Reed so they can return home to their families. Secretary Blinken raised our deep concerns regarding Russia’s continued military deployments in and near Ukraine, its actions against VOA and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and the health of Aleksey Navalny and the repression of opposition organizations, among other issues. The Secretary underscored the imperative of ensuring humanitarian access for the people of Syria, while they also discussed regional issues, including finding a long-term political solution to the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. They also discussed areas in which both of our peoples could benefit from sustained and enhanced cooperation, including Afghanistan, strategic stability, and curbing Iran and the DPRK’s nuclear programs.  The Secretary and the Foreign Minister committed to continued discussions going forward ” http://web.archive.org/web/20210520012016/https://www.state.gov/secretary-blinkens-meeting-with-russian-foreign-minister-lavrov/

Blinken’s step-father, Samuel Pisar, was a long-time confidant and lawyer for Robert Maxwell (Ghislaine’s father) as well as to Jeff Epstein. Pisar also worked for JFK who was notorious for cavorting with prostitutes, etc. – coincidence?

In a 2010 interview with RIA, Samuel Pisar explains that he wrote his dissertation on the possibility of economic, political and human relations between the US and the USSR. He got to know then Senator John F. Kennedy, and became a Presidential advisor to him, to the State Department, and to a Congressional Commission. As an international lawyer Pisar said that he worked very hard in the area of ​​trade and investment between East and West. He was an advisor to David Rockefeller and went with him to Moscow several times. He was also an advisor to Armand Hammer and after detente became his lawyer and negotiated the largest deals that were possible between a US company and the USSR. In Moscow, he always stayed at the National Hotel. If Armand Hammer was with him, Hammer occupied Lenin’s room. Lenin lived in this hotel after the revolution. And when Pisar came alone, he had what he described as “the honor” of renting Lenin’s room for himself and his wife.

He met with Brezhnev and Kosygin, and later with Gorbachev, Yeltsin and Putin, because he was also a lawyer for the International Olympic Committee for 22 years. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, he thought that America and Russia would become partners, and maybe allies. He said that he was still researching this and writing about it. He said that it all started well, but then it all soured. He said that this was “a torment” for him. He said that with Putin and Medvedev in power and the election of Obama, that he “felt calmer”. He said that “Obama’s trip to Moscow was a very important event for me personally”. He said that his two children were working in the White House as assistants to President Obama and Vice President Biden, just as he worked with John F. Kennedy at their age. And that he hopes that Russia and America will resume political and economic relations, as they did during World War II. Based on an excerpt from the RIA interview with Samuel Pisar, Jan 26 2010. See the entire interview here: https://archive.md/WqaPP Pisar’s two children mentioned are apparently Tony Blinken and Blinken’s half sister Leah Pisar. Elsewhere we have read that Leah worked for Bill Clinton. She apparently was in both the Clinton and Obama Administrations, based on this interview, unless a third child worked in the Obama administration.

Not a joke:
Regarding Pisar and Epstein: “Affaire Epstein : les nombreux liens du millionnaire avec la France” Le 13 août 2019 à 21h19, modifié le 14 août 2019 à 07h05 https://www.leparisien.fr/faits-divers/affaire-esptein-les-nombreux-liens-du-millionnaire-avec-la-france-13-08-2019-8133258.php


Biden-Blinken on trip to Kosovo in 2009

No mention in Biden’s propaganda rag, Voice of Dem News (previously Voice of America) of his Nord Stream 2 sanctions waiver-present to Putin:
“Biden, Putin Set for Geneva Talks
By VOA News
June 16, 2021 02:15 AM
U.S. President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin are set to meet Wednesday in Geneva with both sides expressing low expectations for any major agreements. 

U.S. and Russian officials said there would likely be four to five hours of talks. The agreed-upon format includes an initial session with the two leaders along with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, and then further discussions with an expanded group. 

A senior Biden administration official told reporters en route to Geneva that one potential outcome Wednesday is reversing the recall of each country’s ambassador.  

U.S. Ambassador John Sullivan and Russian Ambassador Anatoly Antonov returned home earlier this year amid worsening U.S.-Russia relations. Both ambassadors were due to be in Geneva on Wednesday. 

A senior U.S. administration official said Biden’s goals in the talks included seeking areas where the United States and Russia can work together, to clearly state U.S. vital national interests and that “Russian activities that run counter to those interests will be met with a response,” and to lay out his “vision for American values and our national priorities.” 

The meeting takes place in the final hours of Biden’s first trip abroad as president. During the past week, he has attended the G-7 summit and held talks with NATO and European Union leaders, seeking to boost relations with allies and consult with them about the U.S.-Russia talks. 

When a reporter asked Biden shortly after his arrival Tuesday in Geneva if he was ready for his meeting with Putin, the U.S. leader said, “I’m always ready.”

In an interview with NBC News, Putin said U.S.-Russia ties had deteriorated to their “lowest point in recent years.”  

Following their meeting, Biden and Putin are expected to appear separately before reporters, unlike in 2018 when Putin and former U.S. President Donald Trump held a joint news conference after their summit in Helsinki.  

At that time, Trump contradicted his own intelligence agencies by saying he had no reason to doubt Putin’s assertion that Russia did not meddle in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.    

“A solo press conference is the appropriate format to clearly communicate with the free press the topics that were raised in the meeting — both in terms of areas where we may agree and in areas where we have significant concerns,” a White House official said Saturday.  

A senior U.S. official told reporters Tuesday that cybersecurity, in particular ransomware attacks, “will be a significant topic of conversation” between Biden and Putin. 

“And the President will make clear that if we see significant types of cyber activity, like we did with SolarWinds, he will respond like we did with SolarWinds,” the official said.  

In April, Biden expelled 10 Russian diplomats and imposed new sanctions on six Russian technology companies that provide support to the cyber program run by Putin’s intelligence services linked to the hacking of the SolarWinds information technology company.      

In May, two key U.S. businesses — Colonial Pipeline, which transports fuel in the southeastern United States, and the JBS meat production company — were targeted in cyberattacks believed to have originated in Russia. Both Colonial and JBS paid millions of dollars in ransom demands to restore their business operations, although U.S. law enforcement officials have recovered some of the money Colonial paid.     

Putin has rejected U.S. claims that Moscow and Russian hackers are carrying out debilitating cyberattacks on American companies and government agencies.  

The two leaders are also expected to cover strategic nuclear stability and souring relations between Russia and the West.  VOA’s Senior White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara contributed to this report.  https://www.voanews.com/usa/biden-putin-set-geneva-talks And, blah, blah, blah. The Dem partisan web site masquerading as “Voice of America” has become largely another waste of US taxpayer money – frequently dangerously so. Apparently, the Trump Admin-Pompeo didn’t care for Indonesian Widakuswara’s partisan so-called “journalism” either: https://text.npr.org/955976976