Putin lavishes praises on Biden’s summit performance

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• Russian President Vladimir Putin praised President Joe Biden after their summit in Geneva, calling him a ‘professional.’
• Putin defended ‘organized’ Biden from the negative media portrayal.
• The Russian leader was tougher on White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki who is ‘mixing things up all the time.’

Russian President Vladimir Putin gave President Biden a rave review after their summit in Geneva, saying that although Biden looked at notes, it was clear to him that his American counterpart is “fully in the know” — unlike his “pretty” press secretary Jen Psaki.

Putin, a former KGB agent known for savvy media manipulations, defended Biden, 78, from what he said are false portrayals that he’s in mental decline and that he performed poorly on Wednesday. 

“Biden is a professional, and one should work very attentively with him to avoid missing any detail. I can say with certainty that he never misses a single detail. This was absolutely obvious for me,” Putin said Thursday, according to state-owned Russian news agency TASS.

Putin added that Biden, who drew negative coverage for appearing to clutch a “cheat sheet” at the summit, did in fact look at his notes.

“He is fully in the know. He looked into his notes from time to time, but we are all doing this,” Putin said. “The image of President Biden portrayed by our and even by the American media has nothing to do with the reality.”

He added: “I repeat once again — he is organized, he understands what he wants to achieve. And he is doing this very skillfully. One can feel this immediately.”

But Putin was tougher on Psaki, which a US official said showed that Putin viewed the former State Department press chief as effective.

“His press secretary is a young, educated and pretty woman,” Putin said, before adding: “She is mixing things up all the time. This is not because she is not enough educated or has a bad memory. Simply, you know when people think that some things are secondary, they don’t really fix their attention on this … the Americans believe that nothing is more important than themselves. This is their style.”

A US official said in Psaki’s defense: “It is a Russian propaganda cliche to attempt to discredit effective messengers who concern them with gendered and baseless criticism. Any Russia expert will tell you that this kind of screeching is only an acknowledgment of the target’s effectiveness.”

Very little of the Biden-Putin summit was open to the press. Biden drew criticism for appearing to put the US and Russia on equal footing during introductory remarks, telling Putin that both countries were “great powers” — before Biden and Putin watched in apparent amusement as Putin’s guards shoved US reporters.

Source: New York Post