Biden mixes up timeline of first meeting with Putin

US President Joe Biden has mistakenly confused the date of his first summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

During a speech broadcast on C-SPAN, Biden discussed international issues and claimed that he had known Putin for more than 47 years, Caliber.Az reports, citing Russian media.

"I know Putin for over 47 years," Biden said, before incorrectly recalling the timing of their initial meeting. "I remember meeting him between the time we were elected and before we were sworn in. Or right after. No, wait, before that. Yes, that's right, immediately after taking office, in early February," Biden continued. His inauguration was on January 20, 2021.

The outgoing US president also claimed that during their first conversation, he wanted to discuss restoring dialogue on arms control and nuclear weapons, while Putin focused on discussing how Russia had changed.

Their first direct conversation as heads of state took place on February 12, 2022, by phone, and prior to that, they spoke in December 2021 during a video conference. The only in-person summit between Biden and Putin occurred in Geneva in June 2021.

In an interview with ABC News in June 2024, Biden again claimed to have known Putin for "over 40 years." Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary of the Russian president, suggested in a comment to TASS that Biden clarify how he has known Putin for such an extended period of time.

Biden, who was a senator from Delaware, visited the USSR several times starting in the late 1970s. However, at that time, Putin was around 30 years old and serving in the KGB, having been assigned to East Germany in 1985, where he remained until the early 1990s.

By Khagan Isayev