As it happened: Biden-Putin talks in Geneva - BBC News
The US and Russian leaders met face-to-face on 16 June for talks described as "positive".
A ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline in the US caused a surge of panic buying Image caption: A ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline in the US caused a surge of panic buying

At least in public, the two leaders set out familiar positions a world-apart.

The US says Russia has carried out aggressive cyber-espionage and sheltered criminals attacking US infrastructure with ransomware. But President Putin responded by suggesting most attacks in cyber-space come from America and elsewhere.

The US ambition for this meeting was to set out red lines and President Biden suggested he did just that - saying he listed 16 sectors of critical infrastructure that should be off-limits to attacks.

He said he’d also asked Putin how he would feel if Russia’s oil infrastructure was disrupted in the way that US fuel supplies were. This was no threat, merely to make a point, he appeared to be saying. But he also pointed out that Moscow knows the US has "significant" cyber capability - a clear warning.

Perhaps most significantly, Biden said the two sides agreed to set up a working group to develop specific understandings in cyber space and follow up on specific cases.

“Are they going to act? We are going to find out,” he said.

So rhetoric, warnings, denials and red lines were all there as expected - but also the possibility of a route to some kind of better understanding with the caution that this may or not work.