POL Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin to hold first summit in Geneva

Cacheman

Ultra MAGA!
Biden Announces Putin Meeting Was A Success, Hunter Now Has A Job With Russian Pipeline
Nope, he's found a new way to funnel 10% to the big guy...



eitbart.com

Corruption Concerns Mount as Hunter Biden's Artwork to Go on Sale for Up to Half a Million Dollars Per Painting
Hannah Bleau

6-7 minutes



President Joe Biden’s scandal-plagued son Hunter Biden is reportedly now engaged as a “full-time artist” and is working with Soho art dealer Georges Bergès to hold an exhibition in New York in the coming months, with prices for Hunter’s artwork ranging from $75,000 to $500,000, according to Artnet.

Amid years of scandal, the 51-year-old Hunter Biden is apparently now “laying low” in his Los Angeles home while working on his artwork. Bergès, his dealer, plans to host a “private viewing for Biden in Los Angeles this fall, followed by an exhibition in New York.” Bergès told Artnet that prices for Hunter’s work will “range from $75,000 for works on paper to $500,000 for large-scale paintings.”

“I don’t paint from emotion or feeling, which I think are both very ephemeral,” Biden said of his work. “For me, painting is much more about kind of trying to bring forth what is, I think, the universal truth.”

According to the New York Post, Bergès has some ties to China. The art dealer reportedly “regularly features works by Chinese artists and told a Chinese network that he was keen to open other art galleries in Beijing and Shanghai in 2015.” Bergès has lavished praise on China’s role in the art world. In 2014, Bergès told the Chinese state-owned media outlet China Daily, “The questions that I always had was how’s China changing the world in terms of art and culture.

Hunter Biden’s newfound venture does little to distract from the ongoing concerns that he could perhaps be trading on his family name, as he and other members of the Biden family have been accused of doing in the past.

Hunter’s entry into the art world follows years of his endeavors in the world of international finance where he has been criticized for engaging in business ventures with countries at a time when his then-vice president father was negotiating U.S. foreign policy with those countries. One of the most well-known examples of this centers around Hunter’s involvement on the board of Burisma, a Ukrainian oligarch-owned oil and gas company, which paid him tens of thousands of dollars per month despite his lack of experience in the energy sector or Ukraine in general. At the time, Hunter’s then-vice president father was the point-person negotiating U.S. policy with Ukraine. After leaving office, Joe Biden later bragged about how he threatened to withhold U.S. assistance to Ukraine unless Ukrainian officials fired a prosecutor who had launched a corruption investigation into the company that had hired Hunter.

Hunter also came under criticism for his lucrative business dealings with state-owned entities in China, as Breitbart News senior contributor and Secret Empires author Peter Schweizer has reported in detail.

“In China, [Hunter] travels with his father in December [2013] aboard Air Force Two. While his father is meeting with Chinese officials, Hunter Biden is doing we don’t know what. But the evidence becomes clear because ten days after they return to Washington, his small boutique investment firm, Rosemont Seneca, gets a $1 billion deal,” the Government Accountability Institute (GAI) president explained during a 2019 appearance with Sean Hannity.

“That’s $1 billion with a ‘B,’ later expanded to $1.5 billion. And that deal is with the Chinese government,” he explained. “It’s a deal that nobody else has in China. Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Deutsche Bank, nobody.”

Schweizer suspects Hunter’s latest venture could potentially be another form of pay-for-play for the Biden family.

“Hunter Biden was repeatedly hired and given deals by foreign entities that he was clearly not qualified for in the hopes of getting favors from his father,” Schweizer told Breitbart News. “It is not a stretch to believe that foreign entities will pay for or commission his works of art at inflated prices to do the same.”

Money laundering in the art world has been identified as an issue, as detailed by a bipartisan Senate investigation last year:
The Senate report details how a pair of Russian oligarchs with ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin allegedly seized on the secrecy of the art industry to evade sanctions by making more than $18 million in high-value art purchases.
“This is just the tip of the iceberg,” investigators for the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations told reporters on a call. The art world is considered to be the largest legal unregulated industry in the United States, according to the Senate investigation.

The Rotenberg example and many other investigation details highlight the fact that, unlike selling stock or making routine bank transfers, art sales through auction houses are not subject to anti-money laundering provisions in the Bank Secrecy Act. When art is sold, according to the report, sellers are not required to confirm the identity of the buyer nor to make sure the artwork isn’t being used to launder dirty money.
“Secrecy, anonymity, and a lack of regulation create an environment ripe for laundering money and evading sanctions,” the Senate report found.

Meanwhile, Hunter Biden, explaining his art, told Artnet, “The universal truth is that everything is connected and that there’s something that goes far beyond what is our five senses and that connects us all.”

“The thing that really fascinates me is the connection between the macro and the micro, and how these patterns repeat themselves over and over,” he added, explaining that art is “not a tool that I use to be able to, in any way, cope.” Rather, Biden said it “comes from a much deeper place.”

Bergès has praised Hunter’s work, as it holds an “authenticity” that he “personally” loves.

“A lot of the issues that are thrown at Hunter is what makes him produce really great work,” the art dealer said.
 

texkat72

Veteran Member
:rolleyes:
“I don’t paint from emotion or feeling, which I think are both very ephemeral,” Biden said of his work. “For me, painting is much more about kind of trying to bring forth what is, I think, the universal truth.”
blah blah blah blah
 
  • OMG
Reactions: ltd

Doomer Doug

TB Fanatic
Putin has taken the measure of bidey and is not impressed. Erdogan is also trying hard to not start laughing at biden.

Our enemies are licking their chops now, but that won't last long. The weakness is radiating off of bidey and the USA like a space heater. Our military, well 5 months is long enough for the woke :poop: to percolate through out the military and make it combat ineffective.

We got to the end of the year, and no more. We may have as little as July 4th, or Labor Day, or Christmas. The sharks smell blood, and after bidey's little G-7 performance they understand the US has had a coup, by the most ignorant, brutal, warmonger, brain dead Marxist morons beyond belief. And they will exploit that.

And giving NATO membership to Ukraine is an act of raving lunacy that will lead to World War Three.
 

danielboon

TB Fanatic
Putin has taken the measure of bidey and is not impressed. Erdogan is also trying hard to not start laughing at biden.

Our enemies are licking their chops now, but that won't last long. The weakness is radiating off of bidey and the USA like a space heater. Our military, well 5 months is long enough for the woke :poop: to percolate through out the military and make it combat ineffective.

We got to the end of the year, and no more. We may have as little as July 4th, or Labor Day, or Christmas. The sharks smell blood, and after bidey's little G-7 performance they understand the US has had a coup, by the most ignorant, brutal, warmonger, brain dead Marxist morons beyond belief. And they will exploit that.

And giving NATO membership to Ukraine is an act of raving lunacy that will lead to World War Three.
Something is going to happen at this meeting that will not be good, it will appear as a breakthrough but deception will rule the day.
 

jward

passin' thru
What Is Putin’s Mindset Ahead of His Meeting With Biden?


Putin will probably be interested in assessing where Biden’s real concerns lie; where the sensitive areas may be in which mutual restraint, rather than unattainable compromise arrangements, may be the best way forward for now; and how the United States might act and respond under different scenarios.

In anticipation of the meeting between presidents Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden in Geneva, the Kremlin is not looking for a reset, or even a détente. Nor is there any prospect of a grand bargain of the kind that some Russians thought potentially doable at the start of the Donald Trump presidency. There are no illusions in Moscow: adversarial relations with Washington are here to stay.
Russian unilateral concessions are also out of the question in the face of consolidated U.S. power and Washington’s closer coordination with allies. In principle, President Putin would be open to some sort of strategic compromise with the United States, but he must know that President Biden and the U.S. political class as a whole are not interested in that, to put it mildly.

Nor does Putin need the meeting as proof of him being on an equal footing with Biden. From the Kremlin’s perspective, Russia’s international status does not rest on the fact of holding periodic one-on-one meetings with an American president, but rather on the ability to reliably deter U.S. military power and on being resilient to mounting U.S. economic, financial, and political pressure in the form of various restrictions.
That said, Moscow has set itself several tasks for the Geneva meeting: above all, to explain to Joe Biden in no uncertain terms where Russia’s red lines lie. These include inviting Ukraine to join NATO, deploying U.S. military forces and bases—particularly INF-range missiles—in Ukraine, condoning Kyiv’s attempts to recover Donbas or Crimea by force, seeking to prize Belarus away from Russia, and so on.

In addition to that, Putin will engage with Biden on the modalities of a structured dialogue on strategic stability, potentially leading to negotiations on a new U.S.-Russian arms control accord. It might also be good to mutually lift restrictions on Russian and U.S. diplomatic representations in each other’s country, to include the return of Russian diplomatic property seized by Washington. In Moscow’s view, a dialogue on cybersecurity issues with the United States would make sense. However, no Russian apology with regard to its alleged interference in U.S. elections should be expected.
Putin is certainly not looking for a shouting match with Biden in Geneva. He does not have to prove to his audience at home that he can stand his ground and push back against Biden’s rhetoric. Putin will listen, of course, to what Biden has to say, but no discussion of Russian domestic politics will ensue.

Rather, Putin will probably be interested in assessing where Biden’s real concerns lie; where the sensitive areas may be in which mutual restraint, rather than unattainable compromise arrangements, may be the best way forward for now; and how the United States might act and respond under different scenarios. The focus of the conversation will be solely on international issues, both bilateral and global.

The importance of Vladimir Putin’s meeting with Joe Biden should not be exaggerated. Putin did not seek out the meeting. When offered one by Biden, Putin did not rush to accept Biden’s invitation, but took time to consider it. To Putin, Biden’s invitation was never a reward: as the leader of a great power and one of the two nuclear superpowers, he finds it normal to transact business with his U.S. counterpart. Putin’s recent messages to the wider world are less about what he can do together with the American president, and more about what Russia can do alone—and, if need be, against the wishes of the U.S. government.

With all that in mind, the meeting in Geneva may be useful to both sides. The confrontation between them will continue, but hopefully with more secure guardrails built and maintained around it. As for the future of the U.S.-Russia relationship, it will not be decided at top-level meetings, but shaped in the very course of the ongoing confrontation. The most important thing is that it does not get out of hand.

Posted for Fair Use
 

WalknTrot

Veteran Member
Wonder if Putin will toss aside protocol after a few minutes of the meeting and announce to the world what we all know...
Joe Biden has cobwebs in his head, and it's impossible to get a rational thought out of him.
 

Melodi

Disaster Cat
Wonder if Putin will toss aside protocol after a few minutes of the meeting and announce to the world what we all know...
Joe Biden has cobwebs in his head, and it's impossible to get a rational thought out of him.
Nightwolf said just about the same thing, per the BBC meetings have started but of course, there's no information just a lot of fluff articles everywhere about what so and so might say...probably not much news for at least a couple of hours yet.
 

Walrus

Veteran Member
Nightwolf said just about the same thing, per the BBC meetings have started but of course, there's no information just a lot of fluff articles everywhere about what so and so might say...probably not much news for at least a couple of hours yet.
Count on an avalanche of pre-written fluff articles to descend upon us soon. The real info won't percolate through for a few days yet.
 

Melodi

Disaster Cat
BBC on-going thread...this should just keep updating ever few minutes


Posted at 13:4313:43
Geneva summit in pictures
Photos are now coming in of the Putin-Biden summit under way at Villa La Grange on the shores of Lake Geneva.
Both leaders will hold separate press conference later after hours of talks.
Putin (left) and Biden (right)
86ed36ce-bc5b-41e3-90d1-f85e0e0cd4d1.jpg

ReutersCopyright: Reuters
It is the first meeting between a sitting US and Russian president since 2018
 

Walrus

Veteran Member
I'm sure, after the faux pas the other day, that Bai-Den has been told to quit playing with his flash cards at the podium.
 

Melodi

Disaster Cat
Part of a UK Daily Mail photo presentation - best seen at the link.
Biden and Putin's showdown starts with a VERY awkward photo op: Joe says 'it's better to meet in person' as face-off begins with little eye contact, few words spoken and aides telling press to 'go away'
  • The two men arrived at the summit within a few minutes of each other: Putin, after a last-minute arrival by air and motorcade; Biden by driving from his nearby hotel, having arrived Tuesday
  • Biden extended his hand first. Putin accepted, and the two proceeded to shake hands and smile for the cameras outside the Villa de La Grange before heading inside
  • During a photo-op in the library, Biden grinned while photographers jostled to capture the historic meeting
  • 'It's always better to meet face to face,' Biden said, flashing a big smile while sitting with his legs crossed
  • The event was set up not to have public comments by either man, and Putin could be seen sitting back in his chair, tapping his hand against his wooden armrest looking bored while they waited
  • Relations between the two sides are at their lowest ebb in decades after Putin's outlandish cyber attacks against the US, election interference, aggression towards Ukraine and intervention in the Middle East
  • Washington has been seeking to lower expectations amid the fanfare and buildup, despite Russian goading
  • Moscow staged naval drills 300 miles off Hawaii at the weekend - its largest Pacific drills since the Cold War
By GEOFF EARLE, DEPUTY U.S. POLITICAL EDITOR FOR DAILYMAIL.COM IN GENEVA and ROSS IBBETSON FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 11:36, 16 June 2021 | UPDATED: 13:51, 16 June 2021




President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin have begun their summit at a villa on Lake Geneva with a very awkward photo opportunity with stilted chat, minimal eye contact and with aides shooing the press away.

The two men arrived at the summit within a few minutes of each other: Putin, after a last-minute arrival by air and motorcade; Biden by driving from his nearby hotel, having arrived Tuesday.

Biden extended his hand first as the pair shook hands - a marked contrast to the elbow bumps at the G7 - and they smiled for the cameras outside the Villa de La Grange before heading inside.

During a photo-op in the library, Biden grinned while photographers jostled to capture the historic meeting.
'It's always better to meet face to face,' Biden said, flashing a big smile. He sat with his legs crossed, and at one point put a white note card into his suit jacket inside pocket.

The event was set up not to have public comments by either man, and Putin could be seen sitting back in his chair, tapping his hand against his wooden armrest and looking bored while they waited.

Secretary of State Anthony Blinken was seated to Biden's right, taking notes. To Biden's left was Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, seated with his hands between his legs.

Then a minder cajoled the press, telling the photographers: 'Go away please,' and they were ushered out of the room so the first substantive meeting could begin.

The highly-anticipated first presidential summit is a Cold War throwback to Ronald Reagan's meeting with the Soviet strongman Mikhail Gorbachev in Geneva in 1985.

Relations between the two sides are similarly cool - at their lowest ebb in decades after the Kremlin's cyber offensives, election meddling, threats to invade Ukraine, poisonings of dissidents both at home and abroad, and its increased intervention in the Middle East, where it is accused of shadowy mercenary deployments.
Putin looks down at the floor during an awkward first moment with Biden ahead of five hours of gruelling chat to help salvage relations between Moscow and Washington


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Putin looks down at the floor during an awkward first moment with Biden ahead of five hours of gruelling chat to help salvage relations between Moscow and Washington
During a photo-op inside, Biden grinned while photographers jostled to capture the historic meeting. 'It's always better to meet face to face,' Biden said, flashing a big smile. He sat with his legs crossed, and at one point put a white notecard into his suit jacket inside pocket. The event was set up not to have public comments by either man, and Putin could be seen sitting back in his chair, tapping his hand against his wooden armrest while they waited.


+41
During a photo-op inside, Biden grinned while photographers jostled to capture the historic meeting. 'It's always better to meet face to face,' Biden said, flashing a big smile. He sat with his legs crossed, and at one point put a white notecard into his suit jacket inside pocket. The event was set up not to have public comments by either man, and Putin could be seen sitting back in his chair, tapping his hand against his wooden armrest while they waited.
Putin smiles with Biden as the pair shake hands ahead of their highly-anticipated summit to address failing relations


+41
Putin smiles with Biden as the pair shake hands ahead of their highly-anticipated summit to address failing relations
Biden's handshake with Putin was a marked contrast to the contrived elbow bumps exchanged between world leaders at the G7 to show their concern for Covid-19


+41
Biden's handshake with Putin was a marked contrast to the contrived elbow bumps exchanged between world leaders at the G7 to show their concern for Covid-19
The pair look at pains to appear jovial as their summit gets underway in Geneva


+41
The pair look at pains to appear jovial as their summit gets underway in Geneva
Biden gestures as he speaks to Putin who leans forward, appearing to listen attentively to his American counterpart


+41
Biden gestures as he speaks to Putin who leans forward, appearing to listen attentively to his American counterpart
Biden extended his hand first. Putin accepted, and the two proceeded to shake hands and smile for the cameras. They ignored questions shouted by reporters covering the summit.


+41
Biden extended his hand first. Putin accepted, and the two proceeded to shake hands and smile for the cameras. They ignored questions shouted by reporters covering the summit.
Putin smiles thoughtfully as Biden gestures with his fists as the pair start their summit in Geneva


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Putin smiles thoughtfully as Biden gestures with his fists as the pair start their summit in Geneva
Video playing bottom right...
Click here to expand to full page








Putin and Biden exchange warm glances with each other as the world's media watches on ahead of five hours of talks which the US President has promised will include tough topics such as Russian hacking and the poisoning of dissidents


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Putin and Biden exchange warm glances with each other as the world's media watches on ahead of five hours of talks which the US President has promised will include tough topics such as Russian hacking and the poisoning of dissidents
Putin shakes hands with Biden inside the opulent Villa de la Grange overlooking Lake Geneva after posing for a photo with the Swiss President Guy Paremlin outside


+41
Putin shakes hands with Biden inside the opulent Villa de la Grange overlooking Lake Geneva after posing for a photo with the Swiss President Guy Paremlin outside
 

Cacheman

Ultra MAGA!

Jun 16, 8:49 am
WH disputes Biden nodded when he and Putin asked whether they trust each other during 'chaotic' photo op
Biden and Putin's first -- and likely only -- photo op inside their summit was met with a chaotic scene.

According to a pool report, the chaos began outside the room with "10 minutes of a shoving match" between the U.S. and Russian security, press and delegations, with each side aiming to get inside. American reporters were first to go in but not all were let inside.

Already seated, Biden nodded while they shouted questions, including whether the two leaders can trust each other -- but the White House is already disputing that Biden was nodding yes to that.

"It was a chaotic scrum with reporters shouting over each other. @POTUS was very clearly not responding to any one question, but nodding in acknowledgment to the press generally. He said just two days ago in his presser: 'verify, then trust," White House communications director Kate Bedingfield said in a tweet.

Another reporter asked Putin if he feared imprisoned Russian opposition leader Aleksei Navalny and what he would do if Ukraine is allowed to join NATO. Putin didn't answer.

On the way out, another shoving match ensued.

"Lots of shoving and grabbing - it was extremely aggressive," one American pool reporter said. "The Russian security pulled on our clothes and shoved us as we tried to stay in the room. They eventually pushed us out the door." Who's the Boss?
 

ohiohippie

Veteran Member

Doomer Doug

TB Fanatic
What a farce. Putin doesn't even try to hide both his boredom and contempt for biden when he is sitting down. His expression shows he realizes America is led by a senile fool. Putin is wondering exactly who is in control, obama? Clinton? and if he launched a emp and first strike whether the usa even has a functional command authority able to respond. No coincidence Russia and china are openly executing war games off of hawaii. We are so #/&&;;.
 

danielboon

TB Fanatic
What a farce. Putin doesn't even try to hide both his boredom and contempt for biden when he is sitting down. His expression shows he realizes America is led by a senile fool. Putin is wondering exactly who is in control, obama? Clinton? and if he launched a emp and first strike whether the usa even has a functional command authority able to respond. No coincidence Russia and china are openly executing war games off of hawaii. We are so #/&&;;.
The headless horseman
 

Melodi

Disaster Cat
On the "Swan Song" comment, both Nightwolf and I have wondered if one reason his handlers even let him do this was to show the whole world how bad things were so neither congress nor the public would complain much when Harris "suddenly" takes over.
 
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