National security adviser Jake Sullivan was asked on Monday whether President Joe Biden would hold a press conference with President Vladimir Putin following the two leaders meeting in Switzerland next Wednesday. Sullivan responded that it “is still being worked out.”
It’s an inadequate answer for three reasons.
First, because of the debacle that occurred last time an American president held a press conference with Putin, when then-President Trump essentially provided public relations for the Russian strongman. Biden must do better than did Trump in his 2018 Helsinki summit.
Second, a press conference is necessary to show the Russians and the world that Biden is capable of handling Putin in public. This matters in light of Putin’s suggestion that Biden is senile and thus incapable of withstanding a tense public engagement. Putin’s suggestion is, of course, unseemly. Still, it cannot be ignored. If the American president is unwilling to stand alongside Putin and defend U.S. policy and values, the Kremlin will make much propaganda meat out of it. Biden will also create a negative assessment (at least by U.S. interest considerations) in terms of the particular lens of physicality with which the Russian security establishment views the intersection of leadership and power.
This matters because the credibility of the U.S.-led liberal international order cannot be detached from the credibility of the American president. Even slight fuel to the implication that Biden lacks the acuity to handle Putin would be dangerous. Putin’s impulse is to push until he is forcefully pushed back. To ignore the concern of perception is thus inexcusable from a national security standpoint.
There’s also the not-so-small issue of standing up for American values. This is a concern that Biden references quite frequently. This bears special note with regard to freedom of the press and Putin. Putin, after all, is responsible for the murder of numerous journalists and political activists and the attempted murder of others. To be an independent journalist in Russia is to live at the risk of conspiracy or death. These are truths that Biden knows. Leader of the world’s greatest democracy, he has a moral responsibility to show a different approach.
This summit was always going to be more useful to Putin than to Biden. But if the president fails to hold a press conference, his showing in Geneva will be a true embarrassment.
