Yamiche Alcindor:
Well, the biggest takeaway from this historic summit is that President Biden really did strike a much different tone than his predecessor, former President Donald Trump.
Remember, in 2018, in Helsinki, Finland, President Trump at the time even said that he would take the word over Russia over U.S. intelligence agencies, who said that Russia was meddling in the 2016 presidential election, had meddled.
This time around, President Biden was firm. He said that there would be grave consequences if Russia meddled in our elections and if there was continued ransomware attacks. He even said, while there were no overt threats, he said specifically to the Russian president, he said that, if you — you wouldn’t like if your infrastructure was attacked. You wouldn’t like if oil fields were hit here.
The other thing to note, though, is that both leaders said that this was a constructive meeting, there was no overt hostility. So, overall, it seems like this was a successful meeting for President Biden.
The other thing to note, though, is that the Russian president still took no responsibility for these criminal gangs that have been carrying out these attacks on U.S. infrastructure. That’s a space that we’re going to have to continue to watch, because there was no real movement when you look at President Putin’s statements today.
