US President Joe Biden will push Vladimir Putin to respect human rights

The pair will meet to try and restore "predictability and stability" to their relationship.
The pair will meet to try and restore "predictability and stability" to their relationship. Photo credit: Getty Images

US President Joe Biden on Sunday said that he will press Russian President Vladimir Putin to respect human rights when the two leaders meet in June.

During a speech honoring the US holiday Memorial Day, Biden said, "I'm meeting with President Putin in a couple weeks in Geneva making it clear we will not, we will not stand by and let him abuse those rights."

The White House said on Friday it was planning to move ahead with the summit between the two leaders after Microsoft lagged a cyberattack on US government agencies by Nobelium, the group behind last year's SolarWind hack that originated from Russia. 

The Kremlin has said it has no information about the latest attack.

In announcing the June 16 meeting, the White House said the two leaders will discuss a range of issues with the goal of restoring "predictability and stability" in the Washington-Moscow relationship.

It comes amid strained relations over US election interference that Moscow denies, cyberattacks and Ukraine.

Reuters