Putin Forces Biden to Rethink His Saudi Stance
Venue for the MDL Beast Soundstorm music festival in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Dec. 16, 2021.
Photographer: Tasneem Alsultan/BloombergIn the hours after Russia invaded Ukraine last month, U.S. President Joe Biden said Vladimir Putin would become a “pariah on the international stage.”
Several rounds of sanctions later, Biden is considering reaching out to another Group of 20 leader whose country he’d vowed to isolate.
The U.S. leader has been reluctantly drawn into closer ties with Saudi Arabia’s king-in-waiting, Mohammed bin Salman, forced by Russia’s invasion to rethink a standoffish approach as Washington struggles to curb soaring oil prices.