Russia Takes Interesting Stance on Sanctions, Cooperation Pre-Putin-Biden Summit

Some thoughts on recent US-Russia Relations:

• Interesting route taken by Putin today, calling out the US on sanctions ahead of the 16 June meeting with Biden
• Domestically, Biden has been coming under scrutiny for being soft on Russia and hard on China - much like his predecessor
• Recent anti-dollar rhetoric suggests the Kremlin may be preparing for Biden to announce some sanctions going into the meeting that could be scaled back or removed if Russia reduces its aggressive rhetoric.
• Russia has shown little intent to be the first move on anti-US measures, and would benefit more from reduced geopolitical volatility - given recent inflationary pressures
• This provides a strategic bargaining chip for the US in negotiations to achieve domestic social goals of acting tough while retaining the option of improving ties by not implementing or scaling back sanctions