Biden, Putin end summit after less than two hours of talks

US President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin met in Geneva on Wednesday for their first summit since Biden took office, but their talks lasted less than four hours—far less than Biden's advisers had said they expected, The Tribune reports.

Both had said they hoped for more stable and predictable relations, even though they were at odds over everything from arms control and cyber-hacking to election interference and Ukraine.

Putin and Biden shook hands on arrival before going inside, but the news that they would not hold a joint news conference meant there was none of the joviality that accompanied a 2018 meeting between Putin and Biden's predecessor, Donald Trump.

Biden flashed a "thumbs-up" to reporters as he left the lakeside villa where the talks were held and got into his limousine.

"Mr President, I'd like to thank you for your initiative to meet today," Putin said, sitting next to Biden, adding: "US and Russian relations have a lot of issues accumulated that require the highest-level meeting".

Biden said they would try to determine areas of cooperation and mutual interest. "It is always better to meet face-to-face." Aides had played down hopes for the summit.

"We're not expecting a big set of deliverables out of this meeting," a senior US official told reporters.

"I'm not sure that any agreements will be reached," said Putin's foreign policy adviser, Yuri Ushakov.

The first round of talks—which included Biden, Putin, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov—lasted almost two hours, officials said.

Talks resumed after a break at around 4 pm (1400 GMT), with Moscow's ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Antonov, who was recalled to Russia in March, among those present. That round ended at 5:05 pm local time (1505 GMT).

Relations between Moscow and Washington have been deteriorating for years, notably with Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine, its 2015 intervention in Syria and US charges—denied by Moscow—of meddling in the 2016 election that brought Donald Trump to the White House.

 They sank further in March when Biden said he thought Putin was a "killer", prompting Russia to recall Antonov to Washington for consultations. The United States recalled its ambassador in April.

Peskov said the two presidents would "need to determine how to proceed with the heads of the diplomatic missions", according to Russian news agencies.