WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Sunday said Russian President Vladimir Putin’s openness to swap cyber criminals with the U.S. is “potentially a good sign of progress.”
Biden will sit down with Putin in Geneva on Wednesday at a time when both leaders say the relationship between the countries is at a low point.
Wrapping up a meeting with the world’s wealthiest large democracies, Biden told reporters he may not be able to sway Putin.
“Autocrats have enormous power, and they don’t have to answer to a public,” he said.
But Biden added that Putin may have incentives to work with the United States.
“Russia has engaged in activities which we believe are contrary to international norms,” Biden said. “But they also have bitten off some real problems that they’re going to have trouble chewing on.”
Biden mentioned Russia’s need to rebuild conflict-torn Libya and Syria, as well as deal with its own economy and with the coronavirus pandemic.
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Russia and cyber crimes
Biden has said the issues he plans to raise at the summit include the Russia-based cyber criminals linked to recent attacks on U.S. companies.
In an interview aired Sunday on state television in Russia, Putin said the nation would “of course” extradite criminals if the United States “agrees to the same.”
Biden told reporters he’s open to a trade.
“If there’s crimes committed against Russia, and people committing those crimes are being harbored in the United States, I’m committed to holding them accountable,” he said.
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The leaders’ one-on-one meeting will be their first face-to-face session since Biden became president.
After the summit, Biden is forgoing a joint news conference in favor of solo ones. He said Sunday that’s so the focus won’t be on their public interaction.
“I don’t want to get into being diverted by, ‘Did they shake hands? Who talked the most?’ and the rest,” Biden said. “He can say what he said the meeting was about. And I will say what I think the meeting was about.”
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