Biden and Putin Should Save Their Breath

The last time Geneva served as the venue for a U.S.-Russia summit — in 1985, when Mikhail Gorbachev, still fresh in his role as Secretary General of the Soviet Communist Party, met with Ronald Reagan — the U.S. president remarked that “people didn’t get into trouble when they talked to each other but rather when they talked about each other.” That’s a good explanation — though not the only one — for why this week’s Geneva summit, to take place between Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin on June 16, cannot and will not succeed even by the low standards that observers have set for it. Indeed, the White House line that Biden needs to meet with Putin because of his personalized decision-making style makes little sense: Their relationship is one that personal contact can only make worse.

Biden and Putin have only had one long one-on-one meeting, on March 10, 2011. It was a flop. Biden described it in some detail in his 2017 book, “Promise Me, Dad.” The then-vice president had flown to Moscow to persuade Putin that a planned expansion of the U.S. anti-missile defense system to eastern Europe was not a hostile move against Russia. Putin made his disbelief plain and baited Biden when the conversation touched upon Russia’s annexation of parts of Georgia. Biden said he was regularly on the phone with Georgia’s then-president, Mikheil Saakashvili, to urge him to refrain from provocative action. “We know exactly what you say to Mr. Saakashvili on the phone,” Putin replied.