On Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki announced the long-awaited meeting between U.S. President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin, which will be held in Geneva, Switzerland, on June 16.
Relations between the two countries have reached their lowest ebb since the Cold War. To make matters worse, there’s also a looming June 2 deadline for a second round of sanctions from the Biden administration over Russia’s poisoning of opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
A first round of sanctions under the Chemical and Biological Weapons Control and Warfare Elimination Act, which compels the United States to respond to chemical weapons use, was announced in March. As Russia has made no effort to assure the world it will not use these weapons again, a second round of sanctions is required by law.
