Russian President Vladimir Putin has criticized the United States for treating the Capitol rioters unfairly. He claimed it was unfair for the US to condemn international crackdowns on anti-government protests while pursuing Americans for "political demands."
Putin, speaking at a conference in St. Petersburg, had modest expectations for his meeting with US President Joe Biden on June 16 in Geneva, Switzerland. Relations between the two nations are at an all-time low, dating back to the Cold War.
Vladimir Putin addressed some of the diplomatic stumbling blocks at the International Economic Forum on Friday, saying he does not expect any breakthroughs at the Biden bilateral. He refuted assertions that Russia was behind recent cyber attacks on US firms, as well as assertions that Moscow meddled in American elections.
Russia doesn't expect any breakthrough with the US
The Russian leader kept some of his toughest remarks for the United States' denunciation of Belarus's crackdown on anti-government protesters. He retaliated by claiming that the rioters in the US Capitol were being handled unfairly.
Approximately 500 people have been detained in connection with the riot, the majority of them have been charged with entering or remaining in a restricted facility or grounds. Many have been freed pending trial, but others remain in solitary detention.
Senator Elizabeth Warren, a member of Biden's own Democratic Party, has warned that some of the defendants are being treated "cruelly," BBC reported. Putin also chastised the West for criticizing Russia's response to anti-Kremlin protests, including the detention of opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
The Russian president said that demonstrators in Europe had been met with a harsher police reaction, with some being shot in the eye with democratic rubber bullets, as he mockingly referred to them. It's unclear what he was talking about, but during the so-called yellow vest protests that began in late 2018, several French demonstrators were blinded by rubber bullets fired by police.
Putin and Biden to talk on June 16 Geneva summit
Per Daily Mail, Putin emphasized that Russia denies claims of meddling in the presidential elections in the United States, as he did in the Helsinki meeting with President Trump. And he slammed the US response to the Capitol attack, which occurred just as Congress was about to proclaim Biden's victory over then-President Donald Trump in the November election.
Arms control, global conflicts, the COVID-19 pandemic, and climate change are among the topics Putin and Biden want to cover during their June 16 summit in Geneva. According to the White House, Biden would question Putin on the situation in Belarus, as well as Ukraine, election involvement, cyber threats, and opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
The Russian President expressed optimism that the meeting will assist to de-escalate tensions with Washington. Relations between Russia and the United States have deteriorated to post-Cold War lows as a result of Moscow's 2014 annexation of Ukraine's the Crimean Peninsula, accusations of Russian meddling in elections in the United States and other Western countries, and cyberattacks blamed on Russia by US officials.
Separately, Putin told Russia's Channel 1 state television that he does not anticipate breakthroughs from the Biden summit, but that he expects it would help build circumstances for taking future steps toward normalizing Russian-American ties. He also seized the opportunity to slam the suspicions that Russian hackers were involved in hacking a US pipeline and a meat industry, which had darkened the atmosphere leading up to the summit.
"We have no disputes with the US; we only have one problem with them: their determination to stifle our development. We should strive to find measures to improve ties between Russia and the United States," Putin stated at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum on Friday, as per The Hill.
Putin went on to dismiss US sanctions against Russia as a mystery, claiming that domestic politics in Washington are guiding the two countries' relationship. Nonetheless, he expressed optimism that the two nations might cooperate, noting their common interests in strategic stability and the elimination of weapons that pose a global threat.
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