President Joe Biden left Geneva and boarded Air Force One back to Washington DC after a high-stakes summit with his Russian counterpart Wednesday.
But Biden commented that he “was not confident of anything” after representing the “rest of the West” in his talks with Putin.
“This is about self-interest and verification of self-interest,” Biden said when asked if he now trusts Putin. “Almost anyone that I would work out an agreement with that affected the American people’s interest, I don’t say, ‘Well, it rust you, no problem.”
He added: “Let’s see what happens. You know, as that old expression goes, ‘the proof of the pudding is in the eating.’”
Biden told reporters that he raised crucial issues with Putin including the imprisonment of opposition leader Alexei Navalny and the two American Marine veterans Paul Whlean and Trevor Reed.
The Presidents also discussed a mutual investigation into cyber-attacks, as well as the Middle East and Afghanistan’s military involvement and Iran nuclear projects.
“There were no threats, just simple assertions made,” Biden said. “And no, ‘Well, if you do that then we’ll do this' with anything I said.”
“It was just letting him know where I stood, what I thought we could accomplish together, and what, in fact, if there were any violations of American sovereignty, what would we do.”
