On 7/5/2024 7:02 PM, Bud Dickmann wrote:
> CNN - President Joe Biden approached his first face-to-face summit with
> his Russian counterpart on Wednesday with one of the longest foreign
> policy résumés 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

How much has he collected from both Zelenskyy and Putin this year?