was good for food market is not good for the global economy. me the news. this is all he is joe biden lands in geneva for his summit with the demon. put him, we pour over the big ticket issues on the agenda tomorrow. head of that meeting, the us president called me put in a worthy adversary, but i've always getting a direct answer as to whether or not he still thinks the russian leader is a killer. is that still your beliefs are that he is a killer? especially the 1st question i'm laughing to also the run up president points to the anti russian rhetoric from washington as he's grilled on american tv about jailed opposition leader relaxing,

evolving cyber attacks and moscow's ministry. build up a surprise that we've been, if you provoking the black live matter movement. that would have been a good line of attack, but we didn't do that. ah, hello there. wherever in the world yo tuning in this is the international welcome to the program. wednesday's u. s. russia summit is leading the due to gender around the globe today. will it bring a reset in relations or could it in fact spoil the gears ahead or will become a parents in geneva tomorrow and leading our special coverage that saskia taylor and peter oliver the who's me hello from geneva. hello from

geneva, where the sun is shining on it. he is looking resplendent and joe biden, the us president has arrived in town air force one touchdown wells in the last 30 minutes or so. joe, by making we, we have heard one from the center for you. i can you know that you didn't. thank you. i just wanted record you did you call it that you saw the playing coming in? we watch the 4th one. love joe biden, coming down low, says getting into his limo and he's got a business to say carol before he gets himself into the the u. s. mission and, and get ready for tomorrow tomorrow. busy the summit were flooded me a period and he will be holding a bilateral meeting with the swiss president, gape helen, also the swiss foreign minister as well. we are expecting to hear something from the hosts over the summits in the next half an hour or so. when we get any news or

not, if they have any interesting fit bits on what the us president is to say, of course we'll be bringing them to you, but ultimately they'll all be coming together, joe biden. and letting me put in just a little bit over to our left. there are thousands of press members who have been walking along the gates of the 18th century lock homes, which is why they will be meeting. unlike i'd be saying, we've got a very good rooftop view here of geneva, but really we've gotten even better the show you not as of satellite images of the historic place. now this is indeed a place that has seen great history. it is where in fact, the 18 in 1864, the fast geneva convention which protect human rights and civilians and conflict was signed tomorrow. a lot of those same topics might well come up. joe biden has been traveling around europe at all few days. he's been talking reaffirming the u. s. commitment to human rights to protecting liberalism, globalism,

and multilateral cooperation. democracies all across the world. everything seems to be on the table for that summit will certainly be following everything. i decided to have a quick little p got some of the 20th issue, some of the biggest stumbling blocks. it is a bit tongue in cheek, but you know, was going to be so much serious business tomorrow we might have with this didn't have some fun. let's have a listen the behind this son pendant bite and we'll meet face to face. and if you're lost in the sea of what to expect, i made it easy because here are a few of that favorite thing. just weeks before the summit, americans were in crisis. no gas, no grass fed piece. ransomware tax left people queueing hours to refuel the tanks.

anything beacon vargas to tase on. you'd never guess who is to blame. i'm going to be meeting with president putin, and so far there is no evidence based on from our intelligence people that russia is involved. although there is evidence that of actors ransomware is in russia, but the president poets and i looked a little like someone starring the pre summit pot. here is a veteran of russia gate off to rule the r. yes, america, the favorite foreign policy tool. just perfect for the mega solo and pack, not all who did it, but let's just function a few russians. a few russian tech though, i'm throw in a few russian find out. so group q applause. joe biden is sending a truly message to russia. theories of tough news, sanctioned new tough sanctions on moscow. president biden is signaling that a new sheriff is in town on the campaign trail. president biden said,

who were coming for you, and now he is sanctioned so much more fun than dealing with one's own domestic problems. i'm a right joe most good and expelled some americans and blacklisted some us groups, apparently up to meddling, the stabilizing. no good. the. a slippery topic over which the u. s. has been sending everyone something at feet uneven fully in its allies. but then, you know, it's got tired in what way, where we were going to be able to stop a project in another country that had been refilled $95.00 wide and of course was praised to foot being reasonable so much more reasonable than you know, the one for nato has been waiting, rouses 1949, but i prefer the union or russia to start a war and you will really like and want to be waiting. it's been building miss all bases. i'm doing massive wardrobe but not aggressively. you know,

nato is there to defend all our allies. and this exercise sends a message about our ability to transport a large number of troops, equipment across the atlantic, across europe, and also to protect maritime power attorney to some coincidental. but it's all just happening. you know, near ross's borders and while the criminal does believe in coincidence, it's an so not a fool. so knowing that there is now a nice rocket just 15 minutes away from moscow. it's formed a few new military units, but not aggressively. you know, america's big on that, that's why i keep people in painters at the border and dozens of indefinitely entertained according to monet with hundreds of others. housing. the port should be meeting with president prudent in a couple weeks in geneva. megan, declare that we will not. we will not stand by let them abuse

those rights, which some could say has a distinct width of double standards since you're from flitting. but we are following with interest. the persecution of those who are accused of the rises on january the 6th this year. a lot of really interesting things are happening there from the point of view of the rights of the opposition and protecting those rights . washington shopped at its own reflection. the mirror replied that it doesn't need any type from russia or from international law. thank you very much. the will it be smooth, the lint chocolate? will they be reaching those famous swiss army knife? you have to watch and see. well, this isn't the 1st time that geneva has played host to an important summit when relations between moscow and washington have been at their lowest buck in the 1980s that were an important site for meetings between the us president ronald reagan and

the soviet leader. mikhail gorbachev. it's now absolute pleasure to be joined by somebody who is a crucial part of those meetings, puffy. publishing, who was the senior diplomat, diplomat on b interpreter during those meetings that took place that probably should get thank you very much for speaking to it. how does the current situation between moscow and washington compared to the well, the situation that was such a crucial part of was this compares actually very well or. busy very badly in that by the time you were reading met, you know, the situation was very bad. that hadn't been a meeting between soviet and us me those for 6 years. and that right now we have a similar situation. the last meeting between present,

put in the. busy present time was in 2018 but unfortunately in my view did more harm than good and. busy we had relations really going down and down and down for quite a few years since at least 24, you know, perhaps earlier. so this is a very necessary summit the i do want to, if i could just ask question, no i do because you're an inside for us. and of course all we do here on the outside is speculate what are they going to talk about? what did they say? what's the person relationship? someone who's been on the inside who sat in rooms where so many important globally important questions on issues have been resolved. you know, what is the atmosphere that, is it a sense that this is a business deal?

is it more informal? just what's it like for us? or for them rather. describe it throughout please? oh, it depends. you know, the very 1st meeting between which region, which was a one on one meeting with only one in the present. but i did have a read out and then i read the record of that meeting was difficult because my friends reagan started with a long list of complaints the list of miss deeds of the soviet union. and also she complained about the aggressive nature marxist, lena started the ology, of cetera. he just wanted to have it all out and go, but you have listened to. but gradually the conversation went into the real specific issues and the discussion of what. busy can be done to

improve relations. i suspect that there might be some moments, rather chance exchanges, but i think both leaders are experience people and they will want to, you know, to have a conversation about what can be done by both sides to normalize relations. and in particular to security accomplish i think the use of saying there might be some moments between the 2 is a beautiful bit of diplomatic understatement there. what he's heard from joe biden is, while he's cold blooded me, a food nicola, going into the me think you've been there. you've got the big table when it comes to these type of important diplomatic discussions. how important does the language that you used outside of the room?

how important is that when they eventually sit down opposite one another in the room? while i, i don't expect them to, to say this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship for, from the very beginning. but i do think that they well, want to establish some kind of for and you know, in my view, the sooner the media you know, begins to forget this the, so never so will the so called killer remark which was. busy by the way, set up by a member of the media as a better, i think that the and negotiations will be business like i understand from. busy the presence of visor or international as your wish of that the summit has been well prepared that they have gone through their

agenda. i wouldn't be surprised if there was already a draft. the joint statement typically on the resumption of egypt to do it in goes asians. so i think it will be quite different from the way it is being for trade. sometimes the notices of the, on the negatives things that have been happening and have been said what i did want to ask you is that obviously we know that when reagan and chalk met, reagan said that the summit was absolutely crucial because he truly believed that the world was on the brink of a new kid, a war thought was something that paved the way, of course, to the i n f treaty. you were part of those processes and tell me when you heard the news that trump was pulling out of the line of treaty in 2019. what for you as someone who worked so hard to be part of the team to create a corner stone document, what was the feelings that you had one more feeling was that

was could have been done to save the treaty and that the treaty being and it was a bad idea in the 1st place, and 2nd away i have some hope that the withdrawal from the treaty will not trigger and immediate arms race and fortunes where this has been proven. right? we haven't seen a major arms race ins for weapons missiles so far and. busy there is some hope that they could include the ins says into the new strategic stability can go she, asians, and that a major pharmacies to be prevented. so you called me and i always prefer even bad situations and bad times to think about what could be done to at least say,

some of the achievements and accomplishments of the time when i was working with garbage. when we present to bring things into the, the current situation that we're facing right now, you mentioned opportunities to try and find common ground. if there's going to be any success. i know success can be very definite word, but if there is to be any positive to be taken away from it, it's going to be in the, in where they can find common ground. now, does the, the current global pandemic represent one of those areas in which they can be some cooperation between washington and russia. we heard joe buying that, the g 7 pledging a lot more vaccines globally, to co, vox notably absent from any of the g 7 mentioning and any of the g. 7 statements was russia. could that be a possibility for pandemic cooperation because isn't going away anywhere anytime

soon. being one of the take away successes that we get from when say well, i don't know whether this could be included in a possible joined statement. maybe if it is included in a joint statement, it could be done in a very general way. as i understand there is definitely a willingness rushes to work together with other countries to stop the panoramic and to provide the russian vaccine. that as i understand is a good one. i haven't actually literacy vaccine. i just, the russian actually. unfortunately, some people in our own company don't good. i think that if the whole thing is the latest and the russian and the west find ways to bring that to actually to other countries,

people in the world that would be very useful. i think it's not just the panoramic, it's also climate. i would suggest another matter another subject for possible duration and that's why they organized crime including credential. if we make small steps in that area, that could also help improve the atmosphere and areas such as cyber security, which is very difficult. so these things are all interconnected, and i think that if the knowledge is at least to some extent and successful, we could have a situation when things will start moving on some trans, perhaps on several firms. you talked about creating an atmosphere that might be conducive to communication. now, i do want to talk just a tiny bit about nato because this is one really big stumbling vault. you know,

america and nato allies of sets that really, this is just a defensive alliance, but president putin and within russia, they've seen consistently in that view. this is not military, it is what we're talking about. you the law of, you know, what, we're talking about libya, whether we're talking about us lawmakers talking about we're going to suffocate. who 10 lindsey graham said with nato flags put a nater st. noose around his neck. do you think that there's any concession that natal the us could make that would convince rush that they don't have a whole started gender against moscow? well, number one, fortunately, lindsey brown will not be in geneva. number 2, i think that it's not a matter of concessions, and probably they will not soon be any agreement on the nature of nato. russia has some view on this. the u. s. has its hue of nato as

a be so alliance. russia doesn't think so. so what i think can be done is to reach agreement about the escalation of military activities. no, right now there's a lot of things happening very close to the line of contact between russia and major military exercises, overflights, ships, incidents. so there's been some incidence. there may be more so i think that agreement to de escalate military activities to perhaps hold them in areas that are not closely why in a context would be useful whether this could be discussed to achieve that the summit. i don't know, but i do know that there are recommendations from a large group of experts from native countries and russia. about to d. s, toiling,

military activities, maneuvers and exercises. i actually signed those one of the long more than 200 experts. so sign b recommendations on this. i do hope that they will be useful to the leaders probably shanker, we really appreciate your time, but you have one final question about the, the nuts and bolts of these type of summits because of all cells. and we, we get to see the final product in our viewers as well. will want to know exactly what goes on with some of the decision making that lead to what we see now. the united united states says they're going to hold so low press conferences afterwards . though sa scare myself, with speculating just last hour about the reasons why you would do this, is it so it's a lot easier to say what you really want to say about your opponent when they're not stood next to you. why do you have a solo press conference? why do you think that doing it this time?

well actually, no. the wasn't even the rest conference. after the geneva, some of the 85 wasn't doing press conference after reykjavik it's something that was a joint press conference mulder after the 1989, some of lord george bush and rico gorbachev's. so these things are decided based on the specific situation. i think that that is not fine for a joint press conference, but i wouldn't be surprised if both of them were toward the end of their meeting, discuss what they would be saying. i think that coordinating the public lines, so to say the theme the president would be useful, but i will not be there. so i don't know, i frankly hope that this will end on

a positive no time. we're worried about what happens afterwards because unfortunately, even have to read it. we had some months of the rhetorical and polemical discussions that did not move things forward than we have. so mentions that, you know, put in my show the whole relationship. so it's important. first of all, to hopefully see a positive conclusion of this summit and that's important to see that it is not derailed afterwards. but you know, you said i didn't write. i'm also an optimist. i think one has come for a little more optimistic tone in our discussions. i think that's definitely a lot of optimism. we're going to have to wait and see. i know it's a p c, but here really is to i can't tell you what an attachment and honor it has been to

speak to you to hear from someone from the inside who course has been part of so many historic events and whose role also has been literally to make sure that that is communication between people really has been a great passion. thank you so much. that was part of your punishment veteran russian to promote uninstalled protests. thank you. one, i mean time that is one topic that will absolutely be raised. this is something that the american president joe biden has said consistently. he has reiterated his commitment to press president putin on human rights. and specifically, on the case of russian activists on critic, i'll say no follow me who is currently solving out a prison sentence in a jail just east of moscow. this is something that he has said while in europe he has said that absolutely he is reaffirming his commitment fight against what he call, who calls political repression inside of russia. but correspondent constantino rushed

golf as best place to talk all about the ins and out of that particular topic. only 2 percent of russians would support the legs in the valley if you run for president, according to recent polls. now the last western media often portray him as latimer putin's main challenger. and number one ho, so no surprise, he grabbed mainstream headlines when their favorite opposition. a theory suddenly felt sick on a flight last year. on in the the

according to nevada, himself, the quick and professional response by russian medic save his life. russian specialists also didn't find any traces of toxic substances in his body. and ever his condition stabilized, they approved his transfer to germany. but while details were still to all the kremlin, aladdin reputed were immediately accused of an attempt on his life. the allegations were quickly backed up by german military medical examiner about his blood again and found navi chalk and nerve agent, well known to western audiences. after the latch, scoop out, poisoning in the u. k, in 2018 in both the screen power and the valve in cases, russian authorities repeatedly ask for any proof such as that entailed lab report to unequivocally show they indeed were poisoned by this particular nerve. agent, but their calls haven't been answered. there's no tangible evidence, nothing about those 3 bottles with the supposed traces of poison,

no copies of the toxicology report, no results in biological tests. that if it turns out, then the valley says i with poisoned by the motion state and let him put in personally. and this is accepted by the west without any rejection. after through reviving what was described as the near fatal nerve agent attack, no valley recovered in less than a month and hit the ground running. naming 8 f as be, asians he believes, are responsible for his alleged poisoning and announced he's come back to russia. he was been arrested at the airport shortly after a landing in moscow for violating the terms of his parole, which dates back to the 2014 fraud conviction. now the opposition figure isn't a penal colony serving his due year a month sentence. and russian officials have warned, against discussing the case at the put in by meeting. well, there is nothing to discuss about. there is nothing to discuss about this gentleman his in prison and he's not a subject for the agenda of our bilateral relations. no malice arrest spark protest

mostly in the russian capital. although the numbers who came out to the streets were much smaller than organizers expected. partly because the demonstrations were unauthorized due to the been damaged and police had to intervene sometimes using force. moscow was immediately accused of cracking down on the opposition state department strongly condemning the use of harsh tactics against protesters and journalists in cities throughout russia. these continued efforts to suppress russians rights to peacefully protest and assemble sweden and the you are concerned about the situation with democracy, civil society and human rights in russia, i will raise the topic of wallace, st. paul and his poisoning use of a nerve agent and his rest as well as the reaction of russian authorities to treat protest. there's an obvious drift towards authoritarianism, with in particular this arbitrary arrests collective arrests preventive arrests regarding the case of mr. alexis volney. more than 3000 people have been before

delay arrested. this wave of detention is something that the russian authorities urged nations blaming moscow to sort out their own anti locked down demonstrations, which have often seen us. an officer is brutally charging at protesters the the . 8 latimer reputed way didn't noting some countries had shown a surprisingly close interest in the russian opposition. so take

a look at the side defense in the united states, where people refuse to accept the election results and stormed the congress. why is it only our non systemic opposition? that you are interested in, and some think america itself may have questions to answer. i think 2 things are happening. one, the us pre g acts upon other countries. its own foibles, right? instead of looking in word, instead looks at the failings of other countries, but also, and maybe more importantly, it tries to use the shortcomings of other countries to justify invading those countries, sanctioning those countries. and that's what we see time. and again, i think that there are hypocrites, and that they use human rights as a sword. they use human rights as a justification for their neo coley colonial aspirations.