Yamiche Alcindor:
Well, President Biden really wants to just show that America is strong, that we’re taking a firmer stance with Russia.
His predecessor, former President Trump, was seen as too cozy to Russia, including even taking Russia’s side when Vladimir Putin was denying meddling in the 2016 election. So there’s real issues there.
But the White House and White House officials are also trying to lower expectations, saying that there isn’t an exact deliverable out of this. They say that they’re meeting because of their differences, not in spite of their differences. That’s something that we have heard from the White House over and over again.
But there are some real topics to deal with on the agenda, including ransomware attacks that have attacked the U.S. infrastructure system. A lot of those criminal gangs are reportedly based in Russia. Another thing to talk through is human rights issues in Russia and the human rights issues around the world. Another thing is Russia invading Ukraine. There’s some real questions there from the — from President Biden.
So this is a completely different tone from President Biden than what we have seen over the past four years from former President Trump. And that, White House officials say, is the point of this meeting.
