Russia-America Summit in Geneva is now history: What's next?

So, the intrigue that lasted for almost six months around the high-level contact between Moscow and Washington has ended. However, there are still a lot of questions, writes Alexi Ivanov, Moscow correspondent.

The presidents and their accompanying persons communicated for almost 5 hours in various formats, including face-to-face. It is obvious that this time was enough to express the most acute judgments and assessments to each other. Moreover, Biden assured everyone before the meeting that he would firmly express to Putin the most pressing issues, in the opinion of Washington and its allies, including the Navalny issue.

At the same time, Putin's cheerful and optimistic attitude at the press conference after the summit clearly demonstrated that the claims against Moscow were "carefully listened to", but are unlikely to have real consequences. According to the Kremlin, Navalny is a criminal and he has suffered a well-deserved punishment. This is exactly what Putin said in perfectly understandable phrases in Geneva, dismissing the harsh attacks of American journalists programmed for sensationalism.

Putin, according to Russian and Western analysts, brilliantly conducted the final press conference, overturning all the template and clearly propaganda questions prepared in advance by American journalists.

In general, he was outspoken, which is not true of his colleague Biden, who simply read out a pre-prepared dry text. Putin's interaction with journalists was reminiscent of his famous multihour speeches in Russia, which he holds twice a year.

Obviously, it is too early to talk about any results. There are too many blockages and unresolved issues between the two countries. These include issues of strategic stability and arms control, as well as cooperation on acute international issues: terrorism, climate, Afghanistan, the Middle East, Iran, Ukraine, and much more.

It is noteworthy that in Ukraine, the commitment to the Minsk Agreements as the only mechanism for achieving peace was once again confirmed. It is obvious that this news did not arouse enthusiasm and joy in Kiev, given the hypocritical attitude of the Ukrainian side to the Minsk process.

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The Russian ambassador to Washington, Anatoly Antonov, described the results of the meeting most accurately. By the way, a significant result of the conversation between the two presidents was the decision to return the ambassadors of both countries.
Ambassador Antonov, meanwhile, stressed that "he wants to take the word of his American colleagues", but at the same time called for looking at their "real affairs".

In general, the conversation turned out to be constructive, President Putin stressed several times. Of course, we did not manage to discuss everything in detail, but we touched on a lot of topics: "There are a lot of blockages, but everyone is determined to find solutions."

Former President Trump has already expressed many compliments to Putin (Putin in an interview with NBC also said good words describing Trump).
Trump even said to the whole world that Russia "became the only winner" at the end of the summit, which is obviously an exaggeration.

Moscow is ready to work to improve the climate in bilateral relations. Certain signals in this regard are periodically voiced by the American side, in particular by Secretary of State Blinken.

Only time will tell whether the Geneva summit will become the starting point for a new page in the Russian-American dialogue. At least, the Kremlin expects that the mood of the White House (it was Washington who put forward an initiative to hold such a meeting) will be genuine and serious.

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