Although Wednesday's Geneva summit between President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin didn't generate a breakthrough, it may avoid a further breakdown in U.S.-Russia relations, which haven't been this tense since the end of the Cold War.
Despite recent rhetoric that led to each country's ambassador being recalled, Putin said in a news conference that there was "no hostility" in the meeting and that it "was actually very efficient. It was substantive, it was specific. It was aimed at achieving results, and one of them was pushing back the frontiers of trust."
Verification has to accompany that trust, and in his news conference Biden said the results will be judged by subsequent deeds and not just words from the summit on key issues such as the metastasizing menace of cyber and ransomware attacks. Putin reflexively deflected complicity, but some attacks came from Russia. Even if the Kremlin isn't behind them, it can do much more to stop them.
Notably, cybersecurity seemed to be more a prominent issue than nuclear security, which has dominated some previous U.S.-Russia/U.S.-U.S.S.R. summits. Encouragingly, both leaders indicated a willingness to work toward renewing or replacing the New START Treaty, which expires in 2026.
Both sides also agreed to bring back their ambassadors, signaling a more diplomatic approach to Biden's stated goal of establishing more "stability and predictability" in the relationship.
But not necessarily comity. There wasn't, and likely won't be soon, a "Kumbaya" moment, Biden said.
Especially when there is such fundamental disagreement on the fundamentals themselves.
Biden said he told Putin that "no president of the United States could keep faith with the American people if they did not speak out to defend our democratic values, to stand up for the universal rights and fundamental freedoms that all men and women have, in our view. That's just part of the DNA of our country."
And apparently it's part of Putin's DNA to offer absurd false equivalencies, including equating the case of Alexei Navalny, the intrepid dissident who was allegedly poisoned by Russian agents and now languishes in jail, with the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
"He got into this kind of terrible 'whataboutism,' where he really tried to deflect legitimate questions about respect to the rule of law in Russia," Michael Abramowitz, president of Freedom House, told an editorial writer. Overall, Abramowitz said, Biden "acquitted himself quite well," and was boosted by his previous, productive meetings with allied leaders at the G-7, NATO and European Union summits.
Biden rightly raised other key concerns, including two imprisoned Americans, the continued constriction of speech and media freedoms that threatens essential outlets including Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty, and flash points such as the Arctic, Ukraine, Belarus, Syria, Afghanistan, Libya and election security in the U.S.
Biden boiled down his three key objectives as "identify areas of practical work our two countries can do to advance our mutual interests and also benefit the world. Two, communicate directly — directly — that the United States will respond to actions that impair our vital interests or those of our allies. And three, to clearly lay out our country's priorities and values so he heard it straight from me."
And then, seemingly reflecting on the limits of a cold — if not Cold-War — relationship with Russia, Biden added, "We'll find out within the next six months to a year whether or not we actually have a strategic dialogue that matters."
Don't expect a breakthrough in that time frame. But by rallying allies and clearly stating America's priorities, perhaps a total breakdown can be avoided.