Biden has an opportunity to begin rebuilding the U.S.’s fractured relationship with Russia

As President Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin meet in Geneva for their first in-person summit of Biden’s presidency, they’ll have an opportunity to reverse a dangerous and in many ways unprecedented deterioration in relations between the two countries — and begin to set a new course.

Relations between the United States and Russia have reached a particularly perilous moment. The administration recently imposed new sanctions on the Russian economy and expelled 10 Russian diplomats in response to the country’s alleged election interference efforts — further straining our relationship. Russia in turn expelled 10 U.S. diplomats from the country, threatened to take “painful measures” against U.S. businesses in the future, and announced a forthcoming ban on the United States hiring Russian nationals. To make the diplomatic dysfunction worse, the last two U.S. consulates in Russia were recently closed — leaving all consular services to be handled by the overwhelmed, understaffed embassy, which has slowed visa processing to a crawl. It’s now been months since an ambassador from either country has been present in the other.

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