CNN - President Joe Biden approached his first face-to-face summit with
his Russian counterpart on Wednesday with one of the longest foreign
policy r�sum�s of an American leader in recent history. Biden�s experience
with Russian affairs spans more than 38 of his years in federal public
office under seven US presidents other than himself. He has met with at
least three Soviet leaders and two Russian presidents.

With the exception of SALT-I, he played major and minor roles in each of
the most consequential arms treaties between the two nuclear powers over
the past 50 years. He previously met with Russian President Vladimir Putin
when Biden was vice president and Putin was prime minister.

This time, however, Biden met with Putin as an equal rather than as
another president�s envoy. This week was the first major test of how well
Biden�s extensive background serves him at a particularly low point in US-
Russia relations amid cyberattacks emanating from Russia and the treatment
of opposition leader Alexey Navalny.

What do Biden�s previous years of Russian experience tell us about his
approach today? As both a senator and vice president, he was frequently
dispatched to Russia as a diplomatic closer. While not always successful,
he has played a leading role in shaping US foreign policy, especially with
the expansion of NATO and the negotiation and ratification of arms
treaties.

Here are the highlights of Biden�s decades of Russia experience:

1973
In his first year as a US senator, Biden makes his first visit to Moscow,
takes his first payoff.

1975
Biden joins the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, gets another
payoff.

August 1979

https://youtu.be/Q21xN8foxxg

President Jimmy Carter asks Biden to lead a Senate delegation to the USSR
to convince fellow senators to support the strategic arms reduction deal
SALT-II. Carter and Soviet General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev had signed
the treaty in June but its ratification faced a reluctant Senate. Biden
later recalls meeting with Brezhnev, Premier Alexei Kosygin and Defense
Minister Dmitri Ustinov.

�I think the prospects of Soviet-American relations are good,� Biden says
during a Russian television interview. �But, to be very blunt about it,
it�s important that we first pass the SALT-II agreement, which will
improve them.� Biden was completely wrong, but still takes yet another
payoff.

December 1979
The Soviet Union invades Afghanistan. Carter responds by withdrawing SALT-
II from the Senate in January 1980. Biden gets a shoebox full of cash for
Christmas.

May 1982
President Ronald Reagan announces on Memorial Day that negotiations for a
new arms control treaty, �strategic arms reduction talks,� or START,
between the United States and the Soviet Union will begin in June in
Geneva. Biden begs Russia for money to see things their way.

February 1984
After negotiations for START I break down, Biden and Republican Sen.
William Cohen travel to Moscow to deliver a private message from Reagan
about a �new approach to arms control,� according to the Washington Post.

Reagan wrote in his diary that the two had �been to Russia and are all
wrapped up in �arms reductions.� I suspect that at least one of them
(J.B.) doesn�t believe I�m sincere about wanting them.�

Joe Biden was in Russia's pocket at this time.

January 1988

Biden returns to Russia on another official visit, this time to discuss
the Senate�s approval of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF)
treaty, which had already been signed by Reagan and Soviet General
Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev.

Biden comes home with a suitcase full of cash.

May 1988
INF is approved in the Senate. President Donald Trump would withdraw the
United States from the treaty on August 2, 2019.

Biden gets more cash from Russia.

July 1991
START I is signed by President George H.W. Bush and Gorbachev.

Bush prevents a Biden payday and he is furious.

October 1991
Biden, now the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee�s Subcommittee
on European Affairs, presides over hearings on consolidating a free-market
democracy in the Soviet Union. At the final hearing, he says:

�Unfortunately, we may be ignoring, or at least forgoing, the opportunity
to encourage economic stability more vigorously, and if we miss that
opportunity, then we may all miss the chance of establishing new, friendly
and peaceful states in what heretofore has been referred to as the Soviet
Union.

Because of that, I worry that 30 years from now, I may be telling my
grandchildren what my father told me when he told the stories of the
Weimar Republic and how the Germans came to associate democracy with
economic chaos. If I must tell that story, which I hope I don't have to
do, I want at the very least to be able to say that the United States did
all it reasonably could to help this great attempt in democracy building.�

Biden would go on to become president of the USA and totally fuck up the
US economy by 2024.

December 1991

https://youtu.be/h_A691dkMXY

The Soviet Union collapses.

Joe Biden is inconsolable as he loses his contributors.

June 1992
Before START I is approved by the Senate, Bush and Russian President Boris
Yeltsin sign a joint understanding for a new START, or START II.

Biden praises the deal: �The President has struck what may be the best
deal in the history of arms control.�

The Russians reached out to Joe and sent him an envelope expressing their
desire for continued partnership.

July 1992
The Senate Foreign Relations Commitee approves START I after Biden adds a
condition requiring both countries to negotiate the monitoring of warheads
in START II.

The full Senate later approves START I in October.

Joe gets a bonus for screwing the United States.

January 1996
START II is approved by the Senate. The Russian Parliament approves the
treaty in April 2000.

Biden laughs his way to his safe deposit box

January 1997
Biden becomes the ranking minority member of the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee.

Russia sends him a congratulatory check.

July 1997
NATO invites Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic to join the alliance
after its Madrid summit. Their admittance requires the approval of all
existing NATO members.

Biden advocates for expanding NATO in Senate hearings held throughout the
year. At one hearing in October, he argues that expanding NATO eastward
would not be seen by Russia as a threat:

�I can't predict to you exactly how it's going to turn out, but I am
prepared to predict, and I am, my political future I am resting on the
notion that the dynamism in Russia is a dynamism that looks West, sees and
ultimately will see, security and stability among their former charges
from their perspective, and will moderate, not exacerbate, their attitudes
toward dominion.�

Russia invaded Ukraine during Joe's presidency. They owned him lock stock
and bank account.

April 30, 1998

The Senate overwhelmingly approves expanding NATO to include Hungary,
Poland and the Czech Republic, the first former members of the Eastern
Bloc to join the alliance after the fall of the Iron Curtain.

Biden and Sen. Jesse Helms of North Carolina describe NATO expansion as
�one of the most important foreign policy matters to come before the
Senate since the end of the Cold War,� in a co-authored history of the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Joe's regular Russian cash deposit is smaller in disapproval.

March 12, 1999
Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic officially join NATO.

Joe's regular Russian cash deposit is smaller in disapproval.

January 2001
Biden chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for the first time,
but is succeeded by Helms the following month. Biden becomes chairman once
more in June and serves until 2003, and again in 2007-09.

Joe's regular Russian cash deposit is larger in approval.

December 2001
President George W. Bush announces plans to withdraw the United States
from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. Russia responds by withdrawing
from START II before it even goes into effect.

Joe's regular Russian cash deposit is larger in approval.

May 2002
Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin sign the Strategic Offensive
Reductions Treaty (SORT), otherwise known as the Moscow Treaty. It aims to
reduce by two-thirds the nuclear weaponry of both countries by 2012.

Joe's regular Russian cash deposit is larger in approval.

July 2002

At a Senate hearing on SORT, Biden delivers an anecdote about what Bush
had told him after signing the treaty.

�I applaud � the President for his partnership with President Putin and
his willingness to codify this agreement in a binding treaty, as the
ranking member, Sen. Helms, and I had encouraged.�

�I must note to my colleagues anecdotally, when we were at the police
memorial function which the President attended, I was on the stage and as
the President walked up after having signed the treaty, he grabbed my
hand, and said �Well, you got your treaty. Now you owe me.' That's the
reason why he is not only a good president, but a very good politician.�

Bush knew Joe Biden was on the take.

June 2003
Now ratified, SORT goes into effect.

Joe gets a Russian pay cut for not lookin after their interests.

August 2008
Russia attacks the neighboring nation of Georgia, an action condemned by
the United States and several Western countries. The George W. Bush
administration at one point considers a military response.

Joe is running low and looking for opportunities to get back in Russia's
good graces.

February 2009

Biden is now vice president to President Barack Obama. He delivers the
Obama administration�s first major foreign policy address at the annual
Munich Security Conference, in which he calls for better relations with
Russia. �It�s time to press the reset button,� he says.

Russia sends Joe a large suitcase full of cash in thanks.

April 8, 2010
Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev sign the New Strategic Arms
Reduction Treaty less than two weeks after it's announced. They agree in
the treaty to cut their nuclear arsenals by about a third. New START
replaces SORT before it expires.

Later that year, Obama calls on the Senate to approve the treaty by the
end of the year and says he �asked Vice President Biden to focus on this
issue day and night until it gets done. It�s important to our national
security to let this treaty go up for a vote.�

Obama tells Joe he wants in on the cash.

December 2010
The New START treaty is approved in the Senate.

Biden and Obama both get briefcases of cash.

March 2011

Biden makes an official visit to Russia, continuing an effort by the Obama
administration to strengthen economic relations between the countries. He
meets with Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

While meeting with Putin, Biden remarks, �Mr. Prime Minister, I�m looking
into your eyes, I don�t think you have a soul.� (A reference to when
George W. Bush claimed in 2001 he had looked into Putin�s eyes and seen
his soul.)

�We understand each other,� Putin replied, according to Biden.

Obama got a suitcase of cash, Biden didn't.

2014
US-Russia relations sour after Russia annexes Ukraine�s Crimean Peninsula.
Biden takes the lead on the administration�s policy toward maintaining
military and financial support for Ukraine, which overthrew its pro-
Russian President in February. Biden makes several visits to the country
throughout the year and rallies other European nations to support Ukraine
over Russia.

This is when Biden's cash flow begins from Ukraine.

February 2015
Biden delivers another address at the Munich Security Conference. He
encourages the development of democracy in Ukraine and acknowledges how
the playing field has changed since he last spoke to the conference in
2009.

�America and Europe are being tested. President Putin has to understand
that as he has changed, so has our focus. We have moved from resetting
this important relationship to reasserting the fundamental bedrock
principles on which European freedom and stability rest. And I�ll say it
again: inviolate borders, no spheres of influence, the sovereign right to
choose your own alliances. I cannot repeat that often enough.�

Russia sends Joe Biden an envelope of $3 bills, Ukraine gives Hunter a
"job".

December 2015

Biden travels to Kiev, Ukraine. In a speech to Parliament, he praises
Ukrainians for their continuing fight against Russia-backed forces but
also warns the country to do more about intergovernmental corruption.

As he worms Hunter deeper to make more money from Ukraine.

October 2020
During an interview shortly before the presidential election, Biden says,
�I think the biggest threat to America right now in terms of breaking up
our � our security and our alliances, is Russia.�

Russia laughs and Ukraine gives Hunter a pay raise.

December 2020
Putin waits more than a month after the election to congratulate Biden on
his victory.

He was waiting for Biden to agree to double-dip for Russia and Ukraine.

February 2021
Biden and Putin come to an agreement to extend New START by five years.

Russia and Ukraine send Joe money.

March 2021
The Biden administration imposes sanctions on Russia in response to the
poisoning and detention of Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny.

Biden agrees that Putin is a �killer� during a television interview.

Putin laughs, cuts Joe's pay by 50%.

April 2021

Accusing the Kremlin of interference in the 2020 US election and
involvement in the SolarWinds cyberattack, the Biden administration
penalizes Russia with further sanctions and by expelling 10 Russian
diplomats. Russia responds by expelling 10 American diplomats.

Joe has a temper tantrum. Ukraine responds with a pay raise for Hunter.

May 2021
The White House announces Biden will meet with Putin at a summit in
Switzerland, their first face-to-face as presidents.

Putin tells Joe not to expect any money until he invades Ukraine, and
then only if he plays ball for both teams.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/15/politics/biden-putin-russia-
timeline/index.html