UPDATE - Biden Likely To Patch Things Up With Putin At Summit - Libertarian Party

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 16th June, 2021) Joe Biden will likely repair relations with Vladimir Putin at the upcoming summit in Geneva, Gary Dye from the Libertarian Party told Sputnik, adding that the US media will present the American president in a more or less even way to help improve Biden's public image.

Putin and Biden are set to face off at Geneva's 18th-century Villa La Grange later on Wednesday.

"Before the election, the Democratic Party tried to make Russia a great threat and enemy of the United States and it was all political... But now that Biden got elected and the Democrats kind of control the government here, they don't need to consider or say that Russia is this big huge enemy," Dye, who ran for election to the US Senate to represent Oregon, and who is now running for governor of Oregon, said.

He surmises that Biden is trying to bury the hatchet with Putin.

"He had this opportunity to do some bad things against Russia with some of these hackers that seem to be operating within Russia, but Biden didn't do anything. He didn't blame it on Putin. It's all about politics. And I think Biden is going to patch things up," he said.

Dye also believes that the American press is going to be "a little bit more even" while covering the Geneva summit.

"And they're going to try to help that process along and make Biden look like this genius who is able to deal with Russia or peacefully coexist, cooperate. I think it's going to be more of a cooperative press rather than a press that really starts slinging mud at Putin. They want to use this summit to improve Biden's public relations.

And make him look like a really smart guy, that other countries like him," the politician continued.

According to Dye, most of the countries in Europe want to get along with Russia, have a "decent amount of trade" and abandon tensions.

"The Ukraine thing disrupted and made it very, very difficult for Western European countries to have decent relations with Russia or to at least not say bad things against Russia," he said.

Meanwhile, Ibra Taher, US Senate candidate 2020 from the Green-Progressive party, believes that Ukraine and Syria are major fronts for the conflict between the two nations.

"We cannot speculate what effects this meeting will have but the Biden administration showed no sign or intention to de-escalate and continued to arm the Ukrainian government and other proxies which I believe is something that Putin will try to negotiate firmly," he told Sputnik.

Speaking about possible new treaties on arms control, Taher replied that apparently, the US government is not interested now in new restrictions regarding nuclear technology.

"However, this should not be understood to be the reason for new conflict or tension. Thus, I do not expect to see new treaties except for the renewal of the START [treaty]," he said.

In February, Washington officially extended New START, an agreement that limits each side's nuclear arsenal to 700 missiles, 800 launchers and 1,550 deployed warheads, until February 5, 2026. The US decision to revive the treaty, which was sealed by former American President Barack Obama and former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, was welcomed by Russia.