Biden’s First Call To Putin Changes USA’s Stand On Russia

In a remarkable call to Vladimir Putin, US President Joe Biden presented a volley of complaints regarding cybersecurity, human rights abuse, and more issues that were being swept under the carpet by Donald Trump’s government. In his first known contact with an adversarial country leader, Biden has ensured to make his statement of policies clear and has reiterated the same in the press conference held at the White House on January 26^th. The US has joined hands with other European countries to condemn the detention of Alexei Navalny. He is the opposition leader in Russia and has been jailed on Putin’s orders after the street protests went out of hand and the Russian police cracked down on protestors. 

Biden’s First Call To Putin Changes USA’s Stand On Russia

Russia has also drawn international criticism for its standing aggression towards Ukraine, and Biden was sure to point that out to him over the call. He condemned the ongoing Russian aggression and encouraged the withdrawal of forces. He also confronted Putin over the espionage case pertaining to Solar Winds and reminded the Russian president about Russia’s alleged interference in US elections, which did not go down well with the newly formed government. According to the White House Press Secretary, he also pointed out the alleged offer to pay huge sums of money for the death of US troopers who were serving in Afghanistan, a move that is politically motivated to win Afghanistan’s support.

The US President had made it clear that the United States would take firm action to defend its national interests and respond abruptly to Russia’s malign actions. This approach comes as a pivotal turn away from how Donald Trump has dealt with Russia in the past. Trump has overlooked the severe actions of Putin during his Presidency. These included poisoning of the Russian opposition leader, a huge cyber hack on US federal agencies and allied corps, attempted murder of a British citizen who was a former spy, and the 2016 election interference. In every case, Donald Trump did not levy charges on Putin, and other elements of the US government condemned all the acts. 

With the returned angles of expressing official skepticism over Russian motives and actions from the top, Biden also made the most predicted offer of an arms control agreement, which could be key to ensuring bilateral relations between the two countries improve.

The pact is named New Start is the last of the new arms treaties between nations, and Biden’s call was timed right since this is the need of the hour. The Pact is scheduled to expire next week unless extended by the two countries, and Biden can achieve it without the need for congressional approval. The official trading of documents to extend the pact for the next five years was done between the two nations on Tuesday. 

The call between the two leaders has been documented and released by Kremlin and lacked the points that the US Press Secretary listed. Instead, it took a positive note to promising cooperation from the US government under Biden’s leadership.

The note said that the Presidents expressed their satisfaction in the exchange of the diplomatic notes and has agreed to a new start. In a few days, both sides will finalize the procedures that are necessary for the functioning of the new law on mutual nuclear missile arsenal limitation. The same was reiterated by a written summary of the Putin call by the White House later Tuesday. The summary also brought to fore the possibility of both countries exploring further talks on other security and arms control issues. 

None of these had been achieved by Trump in the past, where he had accomplished 18 one to one calls with Putin and closed every call with anodyne statements from both sides.