Alexei Druzhinin Sputnik/Kremlin via Reuters
MOSCOW — Vladimir Putin’s first interview with an American television news outlet in three years was, perhaps strategically so, a big hit for Russia’s networks.
The Russian president’s one-on-one with NBC has been widely aired and much discussed across state media platforms. In it, Putin dropped a Russian schoolyard rhyme in response to one question and alluded to the satirical Soviet novel “The Little Golden Calf” in another — references for a Russian audience rather than an American one.
As Putin was pressed on issues including Moscow’s cyberattacks against the United States and whether he orders the killings of his political opponents, his tone was dismissive and, at times, nonchalant. It mirrored the Kremlin messaging at home ahead of Putin’s planned summit with President Biden in Geneva on Wednesday: Putin agreed to this meeting at the request of the Americans but will not be ceding anything.
Russian officials and propagandists have repeatedly said they do not expect the summit to produce any big breakthroughs for a U.S.-Russia relationship that has hit a post-Cold War low. They have worked to portray Putin as going into it from a position of strength because he has little to lose or gain.
[Biden will give Putin a list of demands. What happens if the Russian leader ignores them?]
“Putin’s recent messages to the wider world are less about what he can do together with the American president, and more about what Russia can do alone — and, if need be, against the wishes of the U.S. government,” Dmitri Trenin, head of the Carnegie Moscow Center, wrote in a commentary.
The main point of the face-to-face for Putin, analysts said, is to express Moscow’s red lines while also reestablishing more typical dialogue with Washington after a tense first six months under the Biden administration.
“Maybe the most important thing is to make the relations more pragmatic,” said Tatiana Stanovaya, head of a think tank called R.Politik. “I don’t think the Kremlin is really counting on having some important progress during the summit, but much more important will be what happens after the summit. The Kremlin would like to create some mechanisms to interact.”
Stefan Wermuth
Bloomberg News
Villa La Grange in Geneva will be the site of Wednesday’s U.S.-Russia summit.
John Sullivan, the U.S. ambassador to Russia, and his counterpart, Anatoly Antonov, have been back in their home countries since April. Antonov was recalled to Moscow for “consultations” after Biden answered in the affirmative in an ABC interview when asked whether he thinks Putin is “a killer.” The Kremlin then recommended that Sullivan return to Washington after a fresh round of U.S. sanctions and diplomatic expulsions.
Perhaps the most positive, tangible outcome of the summit will be the return of the two envoys to their posts, analysts said.
But some issues are expected to be contentious. Most sensitive for Putin, analysts said, is the subject of Ukraine and its potential admission to NATO. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has pushed for Kyiv to become a full member, but Biden said at a news conference in Brussels on Monday that “it remains to be seen.” He added that Ukraine must first meet the criteria, including cleaning up corruption.
“In the meantime, we will do all we can to put Ukraine in a position to be able to continue to resist Russian physical aggression,” Biden said.
[NATO expands focus to China, a win for Biden in his first trip to the battered alliance]
Putin has also started to push back on Biden’s stated intention to discuss Russia’s human rights abuses during the summit. At a business conference in St. Petersburg earlier this month and then again in the interview with NBC, Putin called the United States hypocritical, attempting to draw an equivalency between Moscow’s sweeping crackdown on the political opposition and U.S. prosecution of the rioters who attacked the Capitol in Washington on Jan. 6.
Rather than heed the Western calls for freeing jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny, Putin has used the geopolitical hostilities as a rationale for stifling dissent. He has claimed that Navalny and his allies are operating at the behest of Western intelligence agencies.
“For years, Russia lives under this feeling of a besieged fortress,” Stanovaya said. “The mainstream sentiment within the Russian leadership is that Russia is under attack and there is a geopolitical war. And it’s mostly Western secret services and the U.S. who are looking to rock the boat and destroy Russia.”
While Russian state media has praised Putin’s seemingly blasé attitude ahead of the summit, one television talk show host, Vladimir Solovyov, said Biden’s decision not to hold a joint news conference with Putin after the summit shows that “the Americans are nervous.”
“It is noteworthy that there is no nervousness, concerns or over-expectations in Russia,” he continued. “We are absolutely calm and realistic. There is nothing to expect — well, at least nothing good.”
On his “Vesti Nedeli” (“News of the Week”) program Sunday, host and Kremlin propagandist Dmitry Kisyelov said: “There is a lot of hype in the U.S. surrounding the summit, where Biden is being psychologically prepared for meeting his Russian counterpart as if he is an MMA fighter and as if he will explain and show everything.”
He added: “In Russia, on the other hand, the mood is considerably calmer and more businesslike, given that no one doubts Putin’s preparedness ahead of the meeting. Putin has been ready for a long time.”
Stefan Wermuth
Bloomberg News
Barbed wire and security fences are seen Tuesday along the waterfront near the Villa La Grange meeting site in Geneva before the U.S.-Russia summit.
Natalia Abbakumova contributed to this report.
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