our special coverage of the summit between russian president vladimir putin and u.s. president joe biden. any moment now, the russian president will take off for switzerland where he's expected to land in about three hours. that's about the flight time that it takes. here in geneva, he and the u.s. president will hold their first face-to-face summit as equals, as head of states of their respective countries. vladimir putin is scheduled to

arrive at the lakeside villa lagrange first. he and joe biden will then pose for photos with the swiss president before the talks begin. during round one, president biden and putin will be flanked by their top diplomats, but there are no plans for a shared meal, meaning it will be a lunchtime meeting with no lunch and could stretch into dinnertime without dinner. the timing there certainly very flexible. cnn's kate collins has the story. >> reporter: president biden arriving in geneva for the main event. in less than 24 hours, he'll sit down with russian president vladimir putin and the world will be watching. >> are you ready for tomorrow? >> thank you. thank you so much. thank you. >> reporter: white house officials are already luring expectations for the outcome, telling reporters they aren't expecting a big set of deliverables. the white house says the notoriously late russian leader will arrive to the venue before

biden, and the two will first meet with just one staffer each in the room before being joined by a larger delegation. the venue for the historic summit, an 18th century villa. a reminder of this 1985 meeting, also in geneva, between president ronald reagan and soviet leader mchale gorbachev. but if this was reagan's mantra. >> the maxim is -- [ speaking foreign language ] trust but verify. >> reporter: biden is offering his own version. >> i'd verify first and then trust. in other words, everything would have to be shown to be actually occurring. it's not about, you know, trusting. it's about agreeing. >> reporter: although it will be biden's first meeting with putin since taking office, it is far from their first face-to-face. >> i have met with him. he's bright. he's tough. and i have found that he is, as

they say when i used to play ball, a worthy adversary. >> reporter: biden has met with at least soviet leaders and two russian presidents in his career. then-vice president biden took aim at putin in munich in 2015 after russia illegally seized crimea from ukraine. >> america and europe are being tested. president putin has to understand that as he has changed, so has our focus. >> reporter: white house aides are confident that this summit with putin will be nothing like the last one the world watched with a u.s. president. >> i have president putin. he just said it's not russia. i will say this. i don't see any reason why it would be. >> reporter: then-president trump sided with russia over u.s. intelligence on election interference. >> i have great confidence in my intelligence people, but i will tell you that president putin was extremely strong and

powerful in his denial today. >> reporter: sources say biden plans to confront putin over election interference, ransomware attacks, detained americans, and human rights. >> i'm going to make clear to president putin that there are areas where we can cooperate if he chooses. and if he chooses not to cooperate and acts in a way that he has in the past relative to cybersecurity and some other activities, then we will respond. >> reporter: but in his first interview with a u.s. outlet in three years, putin is already telegraphing his own response. >> translator: we have been accused of all kinds of things, election interference, cyberattacks and so on and so forth. and not once, not once, not one time did they bother to produce any kind of evidence. >> reporter: and the white house says they expect president biden and president putin to just meet

for about four to five hours tomorrow. of course that is subject to change depending on how those meetings are going. one thing that we do know is they say nothing is off the table when it comes to topics. but when it comes to actually what's on the table, there are not going to be any shared meals between the two delegations, which of course does speak to the level of formality that the white house is bringing to these first talks with putin. kaitlan collins, cnn, traveling with the president in geneva. >> folks, kaitlan opened her report with some of the history in geneva and the summits with that summit in 1985 between mckale gorbachev and president reagan. we got the press pack from that summit between reagan and gorbachev. it begins with a personal letter by ronald reagan to the press that was traveling with him to that summit and begins with the very telling sentence, which i think also applies for today. our trip to geneva is one of the

most important of my presidency, he writes. this was brought to us by our senior producer, emily rust. her dad was part of the cnn team covering it back then. my dad was part of the ard german tv covering it back then. so a lot of history for all of us. of course a historic day today. and we're going to cover it from all angled. we have natasha bertrand, who's been covering all angles of what's been going on and especially joe biden's preparation for the summit. very, very important when you're dealing with vladimir putin. talking to natasha now. tell me some of the things that president biden has been doing to prepare for vladimir putin because he's known to try and derail meetings like this one and take the initiative. >> reporter: yeah, fred. so he's been preparing very intensively for this summit. he's been meeting with his advisers pretty much every morning ahead of these meetings with foreign leaders, with g7 leaders, with eu leaders in the spare time that he has to prepare for this summit. he's been huddling with

secretary of state antony blinken, with the national security adviser jake sullivan, and of course he's been consulting directly with these foreign leaders at the g7 and eu leaders about what will be on the agenda for this summit. that is an attempt by the white house, by the biden administration, to really incorporate all of the allies into the planning for this summit and make them feel included, get all of their input into what should be on the agenda because of course russia does pose a threat to europe, and europe feels it is one of the biggest threats that they face. so biden has been preparing in that way, and he's also met with russia experts, a series of top russia experts came to the white house just before he left on this trip to brief him and to tell him about their experiences with vladimir putin and what to expect from the notoriously unpredictable russian leader. so all of these things are factoring into joe biden's preparation here. officials tell us he's not necessarily overprepared, that

he does have a lot of foreign policy experience obviously and he has met with vladimir putin before. but going into this summit, he does want to be prepared for anything that the russian leader could throw at him. >> and really quick of course, there's very few tangibles that people are expecting. but one of the things that is very high on the agenda is possible prisoner swaps of u.s. citizens being held in russia and russian citizens being held in the u.s. any word on what could be achieved there? >> reporter: expectations are pretty low there as well. there are two former u.s. marines that are being held in russia on what the u.s. says are trumped up charges. and each of have been sentenced in russia to upwards of a decade in prison for these charges. the russians in turn are asking for the u.s. to turn over notorious russian arms dealer named victor boot. of course the u.s. sees that as a very unequal swap, something that they don't want to necessarily encourage in the

future, the russians taking these americans prisoner essentially so that they can be exchanged for russian criminals, very hardened russian criminals here. so that will certainly be a topic of discussion the president is expected to raise the issue of these imprisoned americans with the russian leader. of course the parents of these american prisoners in russia are pleading with the president to please make the best possible case to safely return them home. but it is not an area where u.s. officials are overly optimistic about a result. >> thank you very much, natasha. you'll be covering of course all the events for us throughout the day. president biden will enter the summit with russia's president after a display of unity with his western allies. on tuesday, mr. biden met with eu leaders in brussels to renew their transatlantic partnership which had been quite shaken in the trump years. for more on this, let's bring in david hershen horn. he's the chief brussels correspondent for politico. how much do you think, david, this new show of unity will mean

for president biden when he faces off with vladimir putin? >> reporter: well, there's no question that gives him a boost. he comes in with the russian side knowing that he's really got the western world behind him. i mean in fact the europeans are really looking forward to this meeting. there's a general sense that until washington and moscow reach some sort of agreement on a new type of conversation, a new type of relationship, that everybody else is stuck in what the european commission president, ursula vander lion described as a downward spiral in relations with russia. so they're working to biden to really reset things with vladimir putin, at least start some kind of a new dialogue, hoping that everybody then follows along. >> one of the things that we know about europe is that it isn't really totally united on the way to deal with russia. obviously you have the germans on one side who have big business relations with the russians and generally a lot of ties. then you have eastern european countries who have all sorts of

different concerns. are there some misgivings on the part of -- or queasy feelings on the part of eastern european states, especially after president biden decided not to sanction the -- pipeline ahead the summit. >> reporter: president biden met with the leaders of the three baltic nations who lived for decades under repressive soviet rule. the message from them was be tough. so there's no question that they want biden to hold his ground, to not repeat what we saw in helsinki with donald trump, sort of agreeing with everything putin said, giving him the benefit of the doubt. but as long as he is tough, they have faith in him at this point. because there are so many different interests across europe, the baltics, poland want to be tougher. they're right on the border. they also know for germany, italy, all the european countries that want to renew and strengthen business ties with russia, that they need to get to a better place. as long as there are sanctions as the main topic of conversation, they know nothing really works in this relationship. so apprehension for sure,

especially because as you know, the russians are the best prepared when it comes to foreign policy and diplomacy. sergey lavrov, the foreign minister, expert at this. vladimir putin has done this many times before. we know he's not above using kind of hybrid tactics. he had a dog waiting for angela merkel at one meeting, knowing that she doesn't like dogs. but here we know that in fact biden too is a very experienced statesman, and he's done this before himself. so not quite in this format, but it will be quite a show. >> david, wifee've been talking about the cyber sphere and some of the attacks the u.s. blames on russia as far as the united states is concerned. one of the things that we talk less about is some of the alleged russian cyberattacks, disinformation also against european and european union countries. not only countries quite frankly. you also at this point in time have a big disinformation

campaign, the european union alleges, for instance against mrna vaccines to combat the coronavirus pandemic. how important is that topic for european allies? what do they want the biden administration to do? and do they believe there's anything that can be done? because one of the things that the russians seem to have embraced is those tactics of disinformation, of not necessarily cyber warfare but certainly cyber action as sort of a great equalizer considering that they are economically a lot weaker than europe and the united states. >> reporter: this kind of disinformation is a big concern for the europeans, and one of the commission vice presidents has taken the forefront here. what they want biden to say is, cut it out. stop or there will be reprisals. there will be consequences for doing this kind of stuff, whether it's disinformation through social media, whether it's meddling in elections. there's no question that the russians are masters at this. it's not always the kremlin. sometimes it's proxies, but in fact they also know that it has gotten dangerous. we've seen power grids in

ukraine shut down just as we've seen attacks on infrastructure in the united states and elsewhere. so the europeans are very much tuned into this. they very much again want biden to take a tough line, letting vladimir putin know, hey, they're on to this. they know where it comes from. they know where the troll farms are. they know how this is done, and they're not going to take it. >> david, thank you very much for joining us. ca can't wait to read your article on the summit. with that, i'm going to hand it back to rosemary, who is in atlanta. of course there are a lot of other things going on today. but we will of course have the latest from the preparations for the summit and how things unfold as they unfold. >> thanks so much, fred. we'll come back to you very soon. china is making military moves over the strait of taiwan. dozens of warplanes in the sky. is beijing sending a message after criticism from the g7 summit? we will have a live report from taipei. that's next. plus israel's military launches new air strikes into gaza.

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welcome back, everyone. well, the leader of the european union confirms china was a large part of the discussions at the recent g7 summit. and for its part, china blasted a summit communique as a serious violation of international relations. beijing took issue in part with the g7 condemning recent tensions in the taiwan strait. the president of the eu says there are some areas where the bloc can work with china and other areas where it must speak up. >> china has been a big topic at g7, so there extensively we have been discussing it, and we're very clearly aligned that the

european union says, yes, there are ways where we cooperate with china. for example, on the common goal to fight climate change. we are strong economic competitors without any questions. if it comes to the system itself, if it comes to human rights and human dignity, we are systemic rivals without any question. and it was very clear in g7 that we have to speak up on that, that we have to call on that and be very clear that this is the main issue that clearly divides us. >> but china didn't just express its anger in words. it also did it in the sky. so let's bring in will ripley. he joins us live from taipei. good to see you, will. what message was china trying to send via these 28 warplanes? >> reporter: hi, rosemary. that is always the interesting thing when china conducts one of

these acts of military intimidation. this one really is unprecedented, the biggest since taiwan started keeping records of this thing last year because they are deliberately ambiguous. they keep it in the gray zone, if you will. yes, you heard that messaging from china's ministry of foreign affairs and the chinese embassy in london blasting that g7 communique 48 hours before this act of military intimidation. but there was no comment from the chinese defense ministry, and there were other activities here on the island of taiwan that could have been precursors to this. before the g7 communique, there was on june 6th, when three u.s. senators landed here in taipei on a giant c-17 transport jet, a huge military aircraft. the exact kind of imagery that analysts have told me could be seen as a humiliating act of defiance of beijing's territorial claims over taiwan. this self-governing island is both an example of a chinese-speaking democracy, but the government here is not recognized by beijing.

they say this is their territory, and as taiwan appears to be moving closer to the united states, beijing is conducting these acts of military intimidation to say that they will not rule out preventing separation by force. >> all right. i think will ripley, thank you very much, joining us from taipei. appreciate it. kim jong-un says conditions in his country have gotten worse since the start of 2021 even though the country's economy has improved overall. speaking during a meeting of the country's ruling workers' party, the north korean leader called for measures to tackle the, quote, tense food situation caused by last year's typhoon. now to developing news from the middle east. israel's military says it struck targets in gaza with air strikes in response to incendiary balloons, it says sparked fires in israel. just take a look at this new video showing the attack. this is the first major flare-up

since the cease-fire ended 11 days of deadly fighting last month between israel and the palestinian militant group hamas. the strikes come just days after naftali bennett took over as israel's prime minister. cnn's hadas gold joins me now from jerusalem. good to see you, hadas. what is the latest on these israeli air strikes and could they trigger renewed violence in the region? >> reporter: well, rosemary, the israeli military says they launched these strikes after hamas militants sent over incendiary balloons from gaza over the border into israel. they say that these balloons caused at least 20 different fires in southern israel. now, the israeli military saying that overnight they struck what they called a hamas military complexes and meeting places according to the palestinian media. they say that these strikes caused material damages in two separate places, but no casualties. now, this was a major, as you

said, move by this new government that was just sworn in on sunday, led by prime minister naftali bennett. there was a question about what would this new government do. should there be any sort of action taken by hamas towards israel after the conflict last month, that 11-day conflict. there is a cease-fire in place, but as you can see, it's a rather tenuous cease fire. there are reports bennett had pushed netanyahu and the government to take a stronger position in reaction to these incendiary balloons. it's not uncommon for them to be sent over, but we don't often see the israeli military responds with air strikes to these balloons. the feeling i got from sources, from israeli officials after the conflict last month is israel feels it's in a new position and it's taking a harder line now against such actions. we should expect this will be the reaction like this, if these balloons get sent over and they start fires, israel will respond

potentially with air strikes. of course this is all happening, all these balloons were sent over before and as a right-wing march was expected to take place yesterday in jerusalem. this is called the flag march, and it's often attended by right-wing jewish groups celebrating when israel took control of the western wall in east jerusalem in the 1967 war. it's an annual march. it takes place every year. it was actually supposed to take place last month, but it was canceled at the last minute as it was getting under way because that was when hamas started firing rockets towards jerusalem, helping to trigger that 11-day conflict. but under the last government, they rescheduled it for tuesday, and one of actually the first moves by the naftali bennett government was to allow this march to continue to take place despite, of course, the very high tensions that remain, especially in east jerusalem with the palestinians. now, one of the most controversial aspects of this march is it was going to pass by and spend some time in front of damascus gate. this is the main entrance for muslim worshippers into the old

city. it leads into the corridor of the old city. the police blocked the entrance. they did not allow the marchers to go through. but thousands arrived. they were dancing, waving israeli flags and shouting some incendiary slogans, such is jerusalem is ours, jerusalem is our home. some were even chanting things like death to arabs. this is seen as a very provocative move. the march was condemned by the palestinian prime minister. we did hear from the hamas spokesperson that such a march would cause a reaction. now, of course the question is what will come out of this. does this cease-fire now hold? will we see any more action from hamas or from the israeli military? rosemary? >> hadas gold joining us live from jerusalem. many thanks. still to come, mr. biden enters his summit with vladimir putin appearing united with his european allies. we are live from brussels. that's next.

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reaffirm the transatlantic partnership and of course america's leadership in that transatlantic partnership. i want to get to melissa bell who joins me from brussels. melissa, how important do you think it was for president biden to come there to that eu meeting and also reaffirm, as he put it, that america is back? >> reporter: oh, i think for europeans, it was music to their ears. first of all, i think, fred, it's important to note that between what happened at nato on monday and what happened at the bilateral between the european union and the united states here yesterday was that reaffirmation of the fact that of course there can be divisions. there can be disagreements, but compromises can be found, as they were found, for instance, on china. i think more fundamentally it is really those words that joe biden spoke here yesterday alongside the european leaders about the phony populism that had emerged, about the need to fight it, about the fact that until a few years ago, the shared values of that transatlantic alliance hadn't been questioned. and now that they had, he was

really back to tell europeans that they shared them once again and were involved in a common fight to defend them. i think it was an important show of force, especially ahead of what you're covering today. >> thank you very much, melissa bell there in brussels. the u.s. president plans to address, of course, russia's aggression against ukraine in his conversation with vladimir putin. president biden wrote a recent op-ed in "the washington post" saying he won't leave any doubt about the u.s.'s resolve to defend democracy. russia annexed crimea from ukraine in 2014 and eastern ukraine has been locked in a bitter standoff between government forces and russian-backed separatists for almost the same amount of time. earlier i spoke to the former u.s. ambassador to ukraine, william taylor, for his take. >> i think ukraine is going to be a very important topic in the summit. again, president biden is going to lay out where the russians, in particular mr. putin, have

caused problems. and one of the big problems that they've caused, of course, is when they invaded ukraine and tried to annex, illegally annexed part of ukraine, crimea. it's clearly going to be an issue. as long as the russians are occupying part of their neighbor, that's going to be very difficult to re-establish any kind of rules of the road, any kind of predictability, any kind of stability that the president has been talking about. so i think ukraine will be a serious topic, and ukrainians of course are watching this very carefully. they were pleased, i will tell you, that president biden did call president zelinsky before meeting president putin later on today. >> i think one of the interesting things that we've seen in the past, this is, you know, if we look at the basically escalating conflict between the u.s. and russia, it's essentially been going on since 2012. in 2014, you had all the events around ukraine, around crimea.

so far, as far as sanctions have been concerned, it really seems as though vladimir putin has been impervious to pressure and has continued to fuel that conflict. do you think that there's anything that president biden could do to make vladimir putin change course? >> yes, i do. i think there are things that the united states can do, that president biden can do. and i believe that the sanctions that have been imposed so far for the actions in ukraine actually have been effective. since the sanctions were put on, the russians have not moved further into ukraine. they've not gone further into ukraine as people worried they might because they know that the sanctions can be worse. there are more sanctions that can be imposed on russia that they're clearly concerned about. that's not the only thing, of

course, that the president can do. we can clearly support ukraine militarily, politically, diplomatically. one thing that might change the russian attitude toward ukraine in particular is if the united states were to join those negotiations on how to get sovereignty, how to remove russians from crimea. if the united states were to those join those negotiations as president zelinsky actually has invited, then it might be a change in the russian attitude and negotiating posture. >> former ambassador william taylor there speaking to me earlier. and coming up on cnn, what the biden administration has learned from president trump's last meeting with vladimir putin and what one diplomat who was there has to say about the encounter. that's coming up. >> i just thought let's just cut this off. let's try to end it.

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beautiful shot there of the water jet here on lake geneva.

one of the things i've learned since coming here is never to call that thing a fountain. that is the water jet as we view lake geneva. the venue of course for that very historic summit that is set to kick off very, very soon. now, in several hours, joe biden will meet with his russian counterpart, vladimir putin. but u.s. officials say they have absolutely no intention of giving him a platform like he had during the 2018 summit with then-president donald trump. of course that took place in helsinki. a top russia adviser to the trump administration, fiona hill, told cnn she was so alarmed during that now infamous press conference that she was even thinking of faking a medical emergency to make it all stop. listen in. >> i first of all looked around to see if there was a fire alarm. but we were in a rather grand building attached to the presidential palace of the finnish president, who had lent it to us for the occasion, and i couldn't see anything that

resembled a fire alarm. i had exactly the same feeling that deborah birx had during the infamous press conference where there was the suggestion by president trump about injecting bleach, you know, to counteract the coronavirus. it was one of those moments where it was mortifying frankly and humiliating for the country. i just thought, let's just cut this off. let's try to end it. but of course i couldn't come up with anything that just wouldn't add to the terrible spectacle. >> fiona hill one of the most knowledgeable people in the world about russia probably at this point in time. she's one of several aides and advisers who have been helping president biden prepare for the summit with vladimir putin, and officials say that u.s. president has been preparing for vladimir putin's tactics in an effort to avoid the pitfalls of his predecessors and other world leaders, which they have faced. here's brian todd with more details. >> reporter: helsinki, july 16th, 2018.

it was well into their news conference when vladimir putin showed just how good he was at playing donald trump, gifting the president a custom soccer ball in front of the media. >> translator: mr. president, i'll give this ball to you, and now the ball is in your court. >> thank you very much. >> reporter: when the ball was in his court, trump in the minds of many dropped it. he inexplicably let putin off the hook for russia's 2016 election meddling. >> i have great confidence in my intelligence people, but i will tell you that president putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today. >> reporter: trump's intelligence leaders had repeatedly told him that russia had aggressively tried to interfere in the 2016 vote at putin's direction, but trump seemed cowed by the former kgb lieutenant colonel. >> people came to me, dan coats came to me and some others. they said they think it's russia. i have president putin. he just said it's not russia. i will say this.

i don't see any reason why it would be. >> that looked pretty awful and, you know, we could see sort of the master liar next to the spontaneous not terribly experienced public liar. >> reporter: putin is a master at playing mind games during these meetings, from his own imposing body language to making his counterpart cringe. in 2007, knowing german chance lore angela merkel was terrified of dogs, putin brought his huge black labrador into the room. >> she did not blink because she knows the russian mind-set. she knows the russians wanted to play russian chess with her, which means the person who blinks the first has lost. >> reporter: president biden now seems determined not to blink with vladimir putin in geneva. sources tell cnn biden has spent long hours, over several days, huddling with his top national

security officials and aides in preparation, meeting with russia experts from think tanks. experts tell us however well biden prepares, putin will still tweak him. >> he's going to try to provoke biden on the issues that are bedeviling american society, the polarization, the issues of systemic racism, the insurrection in the capitol on january 6th. >> reporter: what does biden need to do to not get knocked off balance by putin? one expert says, don't back down on the issue of recent cyberattacks blamed on russia. >> the best that president biden can do is telegraph that he is full of resolve, you know, that his government is resolved to respond if the russians continue, that there will be consequences. >> reporter: biden's dilemma, one analyst told us, is that he's seeking a stable, predictable relationship with the kremlin so that he can concentrate on countering china. and vladimir putin, the analyst said, is determined to be just the opposite of stable and predictable. he'll likely poke and prod biden

and try to create more political division in america for the duration of biden's term. brian todd, cnn, washington. >> and in an effort to create that more predictable and more stable relationship with russia, obviously this summit really has a broad agenda that we've gotten sort of a little bit of insight into. there's a wide array of topics that these two leaders are set to talk about today. of course ukraine most probably will be on the agenda. cyber is really one of the big topics where there's large disagreement between the u.s. and russia. but there are also some areas where some believe that there could be a shared or mutual interest at least. neither of these two countries have an interest, for instance in afghanistan descending into chaos once those u.s. forces are fully withdrawn. generally the middle east will be a topic. the korean peninsula will also be a topic as well. the meeting right now is set to last between four and five hours. however, there is a lot of flexibility also built in, in case the two leaders do come to some sort of conclusion or feel that they are greating closer to

one another's position. they can make this take longer and really take their time to try and hammer out what most certainly would be a defining moment of the relations between the united states and russia going forward, rosemary. of course we're going to be around here to cover it all. we're going to keep our eye on it. >> we know you shall. we'll be back to you at the top of the hour. thank you so much, fred. appreciate it. still to come, china is preparing to return to the final frontier. the country's first manned space flight in nearly five years is set to launch this week. why now? those details in a live report from beijing. that's next. dad, why didn't you answer your phone? your mother loved this park.

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the number on your screen. coventry direct, redefining insurance. meet china's newest team of space farers. beijing is sending three astronauts up in china's first human space flight in about five years. the crew is scheduled to launch thursday morning, and they will orbit the earth for a three-month stay as they work on china's space station. it is the third of nearly a dozen missions needed to get the station complete by 2022. so let's bring in stephen live from beijing. what is the significance of the timing of this mission? >> rosemary, this is a major step for realizing china's

increasingly ambitious space goals. as president xi jinping has put it, china will eventually become a, quote, unquote, great power in space. this mission comes on the heels of two recent successful launches of rovers, both to the moon and to mars. as we mentioned, this mission is the third launch in a series of 11 missions aimed at building the country's first space station. in late april, they have launched the core module of the space station, and a few weeks ago, they launched a cargo spacecraft carrying supplies for the three astronauts to dock with the module. these three men, once they're in space, they're going to spend about three months there conducting two lengthy spacewalks to install equipment on the space station. now, all these men are veterans in china's space program. one of the main reasons they're building their own space station of course is they have long been excluded from the international space station because in 2011,

the u.s. congress passed a law because critics have long linked china's space program to its rising military ambitions. indeed when you look at these three astronauts, they're all officers and pilots from the people's liberation army. and the commander actually holds the rank of a major general. but interestingly, rosemary, we have interviewed him back in 2015. he said one of his favorite movies was "gravity." in that movie, the american astronaut was saved actually by the chinese. but giving the rising tensions, that probably could only exist in hollywood movies now. rosemary. >> appears that way. many thanks. thank you for joining us. i'm rosemary many are. up next, fred pleitgen is live with coverage of the summit due to begin in less than 3 1/2 hours from now. we're back in just a moment.

[ "me and you" by barry louis polisar ] ♪ me and you just singing on the train ♪ ♪ me and you listening to the rain ♪ ♪ me and you we are the same ♪ ♪ me and you have all the fame we need ♪ ♪ indeed, you and me are we ♪ ♪ me and you singing in the park ♪ ♪ me and you, we're waiting for the dark ♪

hello en a welcome to our viewers in the united states and around the world, my name is fred pleitgen i'm coming to you live from our set in geneva in switzerland with cnn's special coverage of the historic summit between president joe biden and russian leader vladimir putin. we are just a few hours away from the highly anticipated meeting between the u.s. and russian presidents one of the most crucial in kreent times. relationee