Biden tackles issue of bounties on US troops in Afghanistan with Putin

US President Joe Biden spoke on the phone on Tuesday night with Russian leader Vladimir Putin and raised the issue of bounties on US troops in Afghanistan.

This was Biden’s first discussion with Putin since his inauguration as US president.

According to VOA, Biden also expressed his concerns over the arrest of dissident Alexei Navalny, Moscow’s cyber-espionage campaign, and the bounties.

Two senior Biden administration officials told VOA that Biden’s stance appeared to mark another sharp break with that of former President Donald Trump, who often voiced delight at his warm relations with the Kremlin leader.

At the same time, according to US accounts of the call, Biden told Putin that Russia and the United States should complete a five-year extension of their nuclear arms control treaty before it expires in early February.

VOA reported that it was not immediately known how Putin responded to Biden raising contentious issues between the two countries.

But Biden told reporters Monday that despite disagreements with Moscow, he felt the US and Russia could both “operate in the mutual self-interest of our countries as a New START agreement and make it clear to Russia that we are very concerned about their behavior, whether it’s Navalny, whether it’s SolarWinds or reports of bounties on heads of Americans in Afghanistan.”

Shortly before his call with Putin, Biden spoke to NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, reassuring him of the United States’s commitment to the Alliance.

During his White House tenure, Trump often quarreled with NATO allies, complaining they were not contributing enough money for their mutual defense.

The former president was often deferential to Putin, rejecting claims in the US from opposition Democrats that Russia had interfered in the 2016 US presidential election to help him win – a years-long saga that Trump derisively dismissed as “the Russia hoax.”

Last year, Trump also questioned whether Russia was involved in the hack of software manufactured by the US company SolarWinds that breached files at the departments of Commerce, Treasury and Energy.

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Russia was “pretty clearly” behind the cyberattack, but Trump claimed the attack was being overplayed by the US media and that perhaps China was responsible, VOA reported.

Before taking office, Biden said, “I will not stand idly by in the face of cyber assaults on our nation.”

Trump had also dismissed claims that Russia offered the Taliban bounties to kill US soldiers in Afghanistan, another issue Biden pressed Putin on.

Despite his conciliatory approach to Russia, Trump imposed sanctions on the country, Russian companies and business leaders over various issues, including Moscow’s involvement in Ukraine and attacks on dissidents.

The Biden-Putin call followed pro-Navalny protests in more than 100 Russian cities last weekend, with more than 3,700 people arrested across Russia.

Navalny is an anti-corruption campaigner and Putin’s fiercest critic. He was arrested January 17 as he returned to Russia from Germany, where he had been recovering for nearly five months after a nerve-agent poisoning he claims was carried out by Russian agents, an accusation the Kremlin has rejected.