A big loss for Putin. A CNN glow piece on Biden in true Pravda style

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The visuals, the body language and the setting all converged to help President Joe Biden achieve what he wanted — From the start of the Geneva summit, Biden looked confident and relaxed. In contrast, Putin, who has made an art of appearing smug and almost bored, looked tense and on his guard. Then Biden took the initiative, extending his hand first to Putin, who walked over to grasp it. In his press conference, Putin, in true autocratic form, took responsibility for nothing and tried ham-handedly to defend himself from accusations of human rights abuses by highlighting social problems in the United States. Perhaps after years of repressing an independent media in Russia, he has lost his ability to answer tough questions, such as those asked by American journalists. By meeting with Putin, and letting him showcase his signature evasive style, Biden was able to use the Russian president as a prop — a show-and-tell for his campaign to demonstrate that authoritarianism is a malign force. Still, overall, the meeting was a loss for Putin, who sounded defensive and cryptic. And yet, he went out of his way to say he respects Biden, calling him "an experienced statesman... very different from President Trump" — a comparison sure to hurt his predecessor. Biden looked satisfied when it was all over, appearing convinced that he had drawn some clear red lines in the roughly 160 minutes of face-to-face meetings. The visual contrast could not have been sharper from the last US-Russia summit, the Russian president so self-satisfied, the US president, looking cowed and making such counterproductive comments that Trump's own adviser at the time, Fiona Hill, said she considered faking a medical emergency — "a loud blood-curdling scream" — to make it stop. Instead of the acquiescent, slumping former president, Biden looked invigorated against the bright outdoor backdrop. He explained why it's important for the two countries to work together where possible and to try to manage their differences when they can't. In what looked like a slip up, the US president did lose his temper near the end of his presser. CNN's Kaitlan Collins had asked why he's confident Putin will change his behavior, and Biden snapped back, "I'm not confident he'll change his behavior." He later said he shouldn't have been "such a wise guy" and owed Collins an apology. And with that, Biden wrapped up his first international trip, having started the process of fortifying the alliances Trump had eroded, raising the world's trust in US leadership and successfully drawing a contrast between an autocratic, repressive leader — in power because he has crushed his opponents — and a democratically elected one, battling the anti-democratic forces at home and abroad.

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