This is cnn breaking news. Brandnew hour. Im victor blackwell. And im alisyn camerota. Strategic stability. That was the goal heading into todays highstakes summit between President Biden and russian president Vladimir Putin. As the sun sets in geneva, it appears they have at least laid a path forward. I did what i came to do. The tone of the entire meetings, i guess it was a total of four hours was was good. Positive. There wasnt any strident action taken. Where we disagreed. I disagreed. Stated where it was. When he disagreed, he stated. But it was not done in a hyperbolic atmosphere. Translator the meeting was actually very efficient. It was specific. And it was aimed at achieving results. So, lets talk about some of the results. Russia and the u. S. Have agreed to return their respective ambassadors to their posts in the coming days. Also, the two nations will begin consultations on cyber security. And we know President Biden says there would be grave consequences if putin critic Alexei Navalny died in prison. And mentioned the two american prisoners being held by name. With Us Ambassador john taft, hes the former u. S. Ambassador to russia. Mr. Ambassador, thanks for being with us. First, we know that the president says it will take three to six months to determine if this is a success. What can we glean from what weve seen already today, if this was a successful meeting . Well, i think many of us thought, victor, and thank you for having me on, many of us thought that the strategy here going in was to try to lay it out on the table, what the United States, what the Biden Administrations approach was going to be. Today, we saw the last stage of whats been a carefully cultivated and crafted diplomatic strategy, over the last week, going to the g7 summit, nato, eu and now finishing with putin. And i think President Biden laid it out pretty clearly in his interview very simply what his diplomatic strategy was going to be. Put out the bottom line that he had, and challenge putin where we disagree. Then well just have to see over the next few months whether things will work. Obviously, the cybergroup is an important one. Well also have to see whether or not the new Arms Control Negotiations can come together. And we can launch another initiative, which i think will take some time, to negotiate a fo followon to the new s. T. A. R. T. Agreement. Then we have to see if theres other things that come out of this meeting. Im personally very hopeful that the russians will release these two american prisoners who have been unjustifiably held in russia. There are other things like areas of afghanistan, the arctic and climate change. Well see. Id like to know more about your hopefulness about the americans jailed in russia. From what President Biden said he didnt give specifics. I wasnt left with the feel that it was imminent. Let me play for you when asked. Well find out in the next six months to a year whether we actually have a strategic matter. And well find out whether or not we have the release of people in russian prisons or not. For the family of the detained americans, im not going to walk away on this. In case you couldnt hear that, that is was at the end, he was already done, he said, to the family of the detained americans, we discussed it, well follow through on that discussion. Im not going to walk away on that. So, what gives you hope, ambassador . Well, this is an issue thats been out there quite a while, alisyn. When i was ambassador in moscow from 2015 to 2017, the russians were pushing for the release of some of their prisons, viktor bout, the infamous arms deal, a fellow named Constantin Orchenko that used to fly cocaine, both of which were caught, convicted and sent to jail in the United States. Those crimes the crimes alleged for the americans are nothing, compared to what these men have done. Now, im not privy to what exactly the Biden Administration is prepared to do. Or either whether the two russians in jail here tour the o are the ones that putin mentioned. They obviously have ilighleve connections in moscow. I just hope that the americans there will be released. The president mentioned in the case of michael kelby, the businessman, arrested on ridiculous charges. Was held in prison for a while. And now is under house arrest. Now, i think the president made it very clear that this is one of the greatest deterrents for American Business to invest in russia. And russia is really hurting themselves by keeping somebody who is a respected investment banker, michael kelby, in prison. Id like to see the cases resolved as quickly as we can. On the question of cyber security, we know theres been discussion moving forward with experts, consulting experts on some rules of the road. There was a partnership that was suggested by Vladimir Putin to President Trump back in 2018, on cyber security, that was dismissed out of hand, because experts said that he wasnt a fair actor. Is there a degree of confidence that the u. S. Should have now, three years later, that he is a fair actor in moving forward with this consultation . I think its not clear yet, victor, what will come out of this. Theyre obviously going to talk about having cyberexperts together. And as alisyn mentioned, the president apparently gave a 16point paper, laying out the places which there should not be interference in the cyberarena. Whether the russians are ready to do that or not, i dont know. I watched a little bit of putins Press Conference, from what i could tell, he denied straight out that they were doing any kind of cyberactivity in the United States. If thats the attitude, were not going to get very far. But i think the administration did the right thing in putting down on the Table A Number of specific proposals. And well just have to see what the russians come back and do. And mr. Ambassador, because youre versed in putin speak, i want to the play for you and what our viewers and what President Putin said about President Biden, he characterized him after the meeting. So here is that. Translator he is very balanced. Professional man, obviously clear hes very experienced. And he seems to me that we did speak the same language. Certainly doesnt imply that we must look into each others eyes and find a soul or swear an attachment. Essentially our talks were pragmatic. He also has another sentence there where he says its clear the level of his moral character, speaking of biden, was very attractive. So, i mean, he didnt have to compliment him. What was that about . I think that was an attempt to convey, not just to the international audience, but i think also to the domestic audience. Because, remember, the Putin Press Conference was geared, as much as possible, toward his domestic audience who probably watched it live on television. And so, i took that as actually a fairly good sign that putin was able to characterize President Biden like that. Now, that being said, i think we shouldnt jump to any kind of conclusion that thats necessarily going to be leading to the kinds of changes in behavior. Or even changes in policy that we would obviously like to see. I think that President Biden caught it right, when one of the questioners asked him about personal relationship. He said, listen, this is business. This is all about business. But the fact is theyve got to have some chemistry to be able to do business. And at least from what i saw today, that seemed to be getting off to a pretty good start. All right, former u. S. Ambassador to russia, john tefft, thanks so much for your time an insight, sir. Thanks for having me. Our special coverage of the biden Putin Meeting continues. Plus, well look at the dealmaking happening back here on the domestic front. We have new details about a Bipartisan Group of senators pitching another version of the infrastructure plan. Shell say shes got goals. And since shes got goals, she might need help reaching them, and so shell get some help from fidelity, and at fidelity, someone will help her create a plan for all her goals, which means suzie will be feeling so good about that plan, she can just enjoy right now. Thats the planning effect, from fidelity. Are the Color Cartridges in your printer so good about that plan, she can just enjoy right now. Ready for another school year . boy whats cyan mean . It means cyanora, honor roll. mimics Missile Dropping the ink dad dad im so hosed. Yeah, you are. shaq the Epson Ecotank printer. No more cartridges. 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After several years of disharmonny, he wants to bring western Alliance Together again. En to the comments before leaving geneva. I really do think not me, but we, the country, has put a different pace on where weve been and where were going. And i feel good about it. And, you know, one of the things i think understandably, a good deal of skepticism about with the g7, sign on and give america back its sort of leadership. I think it did. And it made me glad americas back. Glad americas back and acted that way. And then when we went to nato, i think its the same thing. We had really good meetings there. As well as the eu. I didnt get one single person, not one of the world leaders, doing anything but thanks for arranging a meeting with putin. I thought, quite frankly, i was in a much better position to represent the west after the previous three meetings with putin, knowing that the rest of the west. Cnns Fred Pleitgen is with us now. Fred, the president book ended every part of this trip with the three words america is back. Do we know how the european leaders meeting three days ago responded with is the summit . Well, theyre absolutely happy the way the summit went down and the fact that the sum the took place. Looking back to 2018, how many division, President Trump himself in the office, paused especially with european alliest germany shouldnt export cars to the United States. Trying to get Eastern European countries on board with the United States. And none of that seems to be there anymore. I think its something that people are surprised about. If you look at the runup to what happens in the senate today, what biden said is absolutely correct. Of course, there were leaders who had misgivings about the summit taking place, especially east europe, after President Biden decided not to sanction for the pipeline. In the end it certainly does seem that right now the european leaders are very much on board with the fact that the summit took place. And certain from the early reaction that i could see, are also quite happy with the outcomes as well, especially some of the things that President Biden said in the Press Conference afterwards. Namely, that the u. S. Would obviously stand up for weaker countries and stand up for ukraine. Thats something thats extremely important for many of the Eastern European countries but also the western values. I think thats extremely important. One of the things that we have to keep in mind about the european countries, i travel to a lot of them much of the time, they wanted United States to be strong. Visavis russia. But they certainly want relations with russia. They also want the relations with russia to improve, however, they dont want the u. S. To give up the western values. I think theyll be very happy with the outcome today. Fred pleitgen, thank you very much for the reporting and analysis. We want to bring in cnn Global Affairs analyst, Bianna Golodryga, and joe doherty, Moscow Bureau chief. Bianna, i want to start with you, what was interesting to see on the conference was the famous what aboutism on display. He likened it to navalny. To the George Floyd Protests in the u. S. As well as the attack on the u. S. Capitol, he was saying those people were protesting and now youre jailing them. There are court cases happening, as though thats the same thing. Its really intellectually completely dishonest, but its classic. And its the preview he gave leading ting up to the summit a well. He said look what happened on january 6th, were sympathetic, but we want to avoid what happened in the u. S. And hes suggesting, again, before rushia had the veneer of having an Opposition Party and checks and balances, Alexei Navalny was not poisoned until just a few years ago, right . He was allowed to have protests, he was allowed to exist. Now things seem to have changed. That veneer has been lifted. And putin made clear if theres an opposition in russia its being driven by the United States in a sense. He didnt utter or say navalnys name but he did associate as sort of an agent of the u. S. Government which he has done before. And what just floored me is this analysis he gave of what transpired and the rationale for why Alexei Navalny is behind bars. He suggests that the reason is he violated his Probation Rules and he traveled abroad for treatment. Well, we know he didnt just travel abroad for treatment. He was poisoned by the fsb, and his wife yulia, just to give a picture and color to this posted a photo of him being airlifted out of russia to germany. So, this is once again him suggesting if theres anybody voicing opposition in russia, inside of russia, it must be led from the u. S. Its sort of a sense of paranoia that the u. S. And other western countries want to oust him. Weve actually got sound. This is President Putin during that News Conference talking about but not saying the name navalny. Lets watch. Translator this man knew that he was breaking the law of russia. He is somebody who has been twice convicted. And he consciously ignored the requirements of the law. He showed his videos on the internet, but he ignored the demands. And knowing that, he came back to russia. So, i take that he wanted consciously to break the law. He did exactly what he wanted to do. So, what kind of discussion are we having . Its obvious that even the asking about Alexei Navalny gets under his skin. He wont even say his name. Thats one part of the conversation. But also i think it falls in line with the theme that President Biden wanted to take along this trip, democracy versus autocracy, and the juxtaposition from what were hearing from putin and what President Biden was trying to espouse during this trip. Yeah, you know, victor, if you look at this the way it was depicted by some, well, you know, President Putin didnt admit to doing this, to hacking into elections. President putin didnt admit that Alexei Navalny is being held as a prisoner, illegally or whatever. Putin was never going to do that. Theres no way that he was ever going to admit to anything like that. That this was not a debate. These two leaders were together to really kind of set out what they viewed. And then, no guarantee as joe biden said, about what the other side will do. Look, i think its very important to say that it was made very clear by joe biden, especially when you get into that cyber part of it, what the capabilities of the United States are. And what could happen if its violated. You know, again, there was no expectation that this was going to be clear or, you know, admitted. But what now happens is as Vladimir Putin goes home, do they really take this to heart . Do they begin to think about the consequences . We dont know, but at least the point is made. One thing that both leaders said they wanted out of this, beforehand, was strategic stability. And so here is