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Updated May 31st, 2021 at 14:05 IST

Joe Biden slams Russia over human rights abuse ahead of summit with Putin in Geneva

US President Joe Biden, on May 30, announced his plans to call out Russia’s blatant human rights abuse in an upcoming summit with Vladimir Putin

Reported by: Riya Baibhawi
US
Image: AP | Image:self
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US President Joe Biden, on May 30, announced his plans to call out Russia’s blatant human rights abuse in an upcoming summit that would witness the presence of Russian President Vladimir Putin. While, Putin and Biden have traded barbs ever since Moscow detained opposition leader Alexei Navalny, however, in a speech to mark Memorial Day Holiday, Biden “made it clear” that America would not “stand by” and let Putin “abuse those rights”. The summit, which would mark Biden’s first in-person meeting with Putin, is scheduled for June 16 in the Swiss city.

"I'll be meeting with President Putin in a couple of weeks in Geneva, making it clear that we will not -- we will not stand by and let him abuse those rights," Biden said while elaborating on the summit.

The relationship between the cold war foes has hit rock bottom in the recent past. Soon after taking office, Biden slapped fresh sanctions on Russia over what the US says was the Russian role in SolarWinds Cyberattack and meddling in the presidential vote. Additionally, Biden has openly slammed Putin for posting and later detaining his staunch critic Alexei Navalny. In February, their tiff caught the public eye after Biden called Putin a "killer”. 

The Russian President responded by saying "it takes one to know one." Moscow and Washinton have also been warring upon Russia's 2014 annexation of Ukraine's the Crimean Peninsula, election meddling, the status of Russian dominated Belarus amongst others. In April, the US announced the expulsion of 10 Russian diplomats and slapped sanctions on over 30 individuals and key financial institutions. 

Navalny's sentencing 

In February, Navalny was handed a 2 1/2-year sentence that stemmed from a 2014 embezzlement conviction that he has rejected as politically motivated. Navalny had then filed a complaint against his prison, claiming articles were being cut out of newspapers he's subscribed to and that the IK-2 had failed to supply him with books of his choice. Last month,  his doctors warned that the Putin critic was at risk of cardiac arrest and could die “any minute”. Elaborating on the same, his personal doctor Anastasia Vasilyeva, along with three others- cardiologist Yaroslav Ashikhmin, have argued that the potassium level in Navalny’s blood was substantially above the average and could kill him. 

Image: AP

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Published May 31st, 2021 at 14:05 IST

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