Pure business at Biden-Putin summit: No hugs, no brickbats

U.S. President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin concluded their summit on Wednesday with an agreement to come back their nations' ambassadors with their posts in Washington and Moscow and an idea to begin work toward replacing the last remaining treaty between the two countries limiting nuclear weapons.

But the two leaders offered starkly different views on difficult simmering issues including cyber and ransomware attacks from Russia.

Putin insisted anew that his country has nothing in connection with such attacks, despite U..S. intelligence that indicates otherwise. Biden, meanwhile, said that he made clear to Putin that if Russia crossed certain red lines - including seeking major American infrastructure - his administration would respond and “the results of that would be devastating,”

Will Putin change his behavior? Biden was asked at a post-summit news conference.

“I said exactly what will change their behavior is if all of those other world reacts” in a manner that “diminishes their standing in the world," Biden said. "I’m not confident of anything. I’m just stating an undeniable fact.”

Both leaders, who've stirred escalating tension since Biden took office in January, suggested that while a massive chasm between your two nations remains the talks were constructive.

Putin said there was “no hostility” during three hours of talks, a session that wrapped up quicker than expected.

When it had been over, Putin had first crack at describing the results at a solo news conference, with Biden following immediately after. Biden said they spent a “great deal of time” discussing cybersecurity and he believed Putin understood the U.S. position.

“I pointed out to him, we have significant cyber capability," Biden said. "Actually, (if) they violate basic norms, we will respond. ... I think that the very last thing he wants now could be a Cold War.”

Putin noted that Biden raised human rights problems with him, like the fate of opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Putin defended Navalny’s prison sentence and deflected repeated questions about mistreatment of Russian opposition leaders by highlighting U.S. domestic turmoil, like the Black Lives Matter protests and the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection.

Putin held forth for nearly one hour before international reporters. While showing defiance at queries about Biden pressing him on human rights, he also expressed respect for Biden as an experienced political leader.

The Russian noted that Biden repeated wise advice his mother had given him and also spoke about his family - messaging that Putin said might not have been entirely relevant to their summit but demonstrated Biden's “moral values.” Though he raised doubt that the U.S.-Russia relationship could soon return to a way of measuring equilibrium of years past, Putin suggested that Biden was someone he can work with.

“The meeting was actually very efficient,” Putin said. “It had been substantive, it had been specific. It was targeted at achieving results, and one of these was pushing back the frontiers of trust.”

Putin said he and Biden decided to start negotiations on nuclear talks to potentially replace the New START treaty limiting nuclear weapons after it expires in 2026.

Washington broke off talks with Moscow in 2014 in response to Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea and its own military intervention to get separatists in eastern Ukraine. Talks resumed in 2017 but gained little traction and didn't produce an agreement on extending the New START treaty during the Trump administration.

The Russian president said there was an agreement between the leaders to come back their ambassadors with their respective postings. Both countries had pulled back their top envoys to Washington and Moscow as relations chilled lately.

Russia’s ambassador to the U.S., Anatoly Antonov, was recalled from Washington around three months ago after Biden called Putin a killer; U.S. Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan left Moscow almost 8 weeks ago, after Russia suggested he go back to Washington for consultations. Putin said that the ambassadors were likely to return their posts in the coming days.

The meeting in a book-lined room had a somewhat awkward beginning - both men seemed to avoid looking directly at each other throughout a brief and chaotic picture opportunity before a scrum of jostling reporters.

Biden nodded whenever a reporter asked if Putin could possibly be trusted, but the White House quickly delivered a tweet insisting that the president was “very evidently not responding to anybody question, but nodding in acknowledgment to the press generally.”

Their body language, at least within their brief moments together in front of the press, had not been exceptionally warm.

The two leaders did shake hands - Biden extended his hand first and smiled at the stoic Russian leader - after Swiss President Guy Parmelin welcomed them to Switzerland for the summit. When they were before the cameras a few minutes later-this time within the grand lakeside mansion where in fact the summit was held-they appeared to avoid eye contact.

For months, Biden and Putin have traded sharp rhetoric. Biden has repeatedly called out Putin for malicious cyberattacks by Russian-based hackers on U.S. interests, for the jailing of Russia's foremost opposition leader and for interference in American elections.

Putin has reacted with whatabout-isms and denials - pointing to the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol to argue that the U.S. has no business lecturing on democratic norms and insisting that the Russian government was not involved with any election interference or cyberattacks despite U.S. intelligence showing otherwise.

Before Wednesday's meeting, both sides attempt to lower expectations.

However, Biden said it could be an essential step if america and Russia were able to in the end find “stability and predictability" within their relationship, a significant goal for a president who sees Russia as you of America's crucial adversaries.

Arrangements for the meeting were carefully choreographed and vigorously negotiated.

Biden first floated the meeting within an April phone call where he informed Putin that he'd be expelling several Russian diplomats and imposing sanctions against dozens of folks and companies, part of an effort to hold the Kremlin in charge of interference in last year’s presidential election and the hacking of federal agencies.

The White House announced prior to the summit that Biden wouldn't hold a joint news conference with Putin, deciding it didn't want to appear to raise Putin at an instant when the U.S. president is urging European allies to pressure Putin to cut out myriad provocations.

Biden sees himself with few peers on foreign policy. He traveled the world as an associate of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and was presented with difficult foreign policy assignments by President Barack Obama when Biden was vice president. His portfolio included messy spots like Iraq and Ukraine and weighing the mettle of China's Xi Jinping during his rise to power.

He has repeatedly said that he believes executing effective foreign policy originates from forming strong personal relations, and he has were able to find rapport with both likes of Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whom Biden has labeled an “autocrat,” and more conventional Western leaders including Canada's Justin Trudeau.

But with Putin, who he once said has “no soul," Biden is definitely wary. At the same time, he acknowledges that Putin, who has remained the most powerful figure in Russian politics over the span of five U.S. presidents, isn't without talent.

“He’s bright. He’s tough," Biden said earlier this week. “And I have found that he's a - as the saying goes ... a worthy adversary."