The Sun
JOE Biden was seen waving at Vladimir Putin and forgot to turn on his mic during the high stakes call as the threat of a Russian invasion of Ukraine looms. The two-hour meeting between the two leaders comes after Moscow ramped up its wargames in recent weeks, sparking fears of a destabilizing conflict in Eastern Europe. The meeting was the first publicly known call between Biden and Putin since July. Russian news agencies released a video of the first few minutes of the call. Putin took the call from his residence in Sochi, the Russian resort city on the Black Sea. Putin was seated at a long wooden desk, with Biden on a large video screen in front of him, waving at each other as the call began. “I welcome you, Mr. President!” Putin said at the start of the call, according to a brief video of the opening moments. Biden experienced some technical difficulties on the call, apparently forgetting to switch his microphone on. There was a silence on the other end, and then Biden is seen leaning forward, flipping a button and saying, “There you go,” with a smile. “Hello! Ha, ha ha, ha, ha. Good to see you again,” Biden replied. “Good afternoon,” a smirking Putin said. “I uh, unfortunately, last time I — we didn’t get to see each other at the G20. I hope next time we meet we do it in person,” Biden said. According to the White House, the two began their conversation via video-link at 10.07am, and ended at 12.08pm.
