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Why Biden and Putin won't hold a joint press conference - CNN
Jun 15, 2021 1 min, 57 secs
Instead of potentially facing the press with dueling messages about US-Russia relations, Biden and Putin will hold solo press conferences following the summit.

TIMELINE: Biden's experience with Russia, in key moments from 1973 to now

The decision to not hold a joint press conference was something for which White House officials had pushed.

But the US resisted because they did not want to give Putin a platform like he had after a 2018 summit with former President Donald Trump in Helsinki.

Officials said they were mindful of Putin's desire to appear like he'd gotten the better of a US president, and wanted to avoid a situation that devolved into a tit-for-tat playing out in public.

The decision also comes at the advice of a group of Russia experts who met with the President earlier this month, according to sources familiar with the discussion.

"This is not a contest about who can do better in front of a press conference or try to embarrass each other," Biden said on Sunday, explaining the decision.

The US-Russia talks are expected to take place at a lakeside villa in Switzerland and last around five hours or longer, according to a US official.

And while Biden has agreed to meet with Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky later this summer in Washington, the White House appeared to essentially turn down Zelensky's initial request for an in-person meeting ahead of the Putin summit.

Asked on Tuesday in Brussels whether he still believes Putin is a killer, Biden also appeared to soften his language ahead of the summit talks.

"I believe he has, in the past, essentially acknowledged that he was -- there were certain things that he would do or did do," Biden said.

During a joint press conference in 2000 with then-President Bill Clinton, for example, the two leaders did not look at or smile at each other.

And when Trump held a press conference with Putin in 2018 in Helsinki, he declined to support the US government's assessment that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election, saying at the time that he didn't "see any reason why" Russia would be responsible.

"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," Trump said during the press conference.

Biden has long been skeptical about America's relations with with Putin.

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