0 in that car with his flag on the front. they'll be making their way around lake geneva to villa la grange on the other side of our position. president biden will be making same route, indeed the same route of history. they'll be going over a bridge that has american flags and russian flags. they are flapping in the breeze on a very warm day in geneva. president putin f he would arrive on time and keep president biden waiting, for now it appears he will not. he's arrived at the summit site first. and that's something the white house insisted on, hi arriving first and not leave president biden waiting. in a few short moments we expect president biden to make his way. the swiss president will be sharing a few remarks, welcoming both leaders here. this is neutral soil in every respect, so this is something that certainly as this meeting begins, swiss will be watching with interest, but, of course, it's between u.s. and russia. wolf? >> this motorcade is making its way. it should be there momentarily, not very far from where we are right now, jeff. thank you very much. let's go to our moscow correspondent matthew chance. he's here with all of us in geneva. set the scene once again, matthew for us. because from the russian perspective, they have a lot they want to hear from the american president. >> reporter: yeah, they certainly do. they've got a whole range of common ground, which they say they want to explore in this historic summit with the climate change, regional conflicts. you know, russia is keen to taking what it cease as its rightful place on diplomacy and the whole range of issues. the other priority, of course, is the sort of, you know, runaway train if you'd like that has been the u.s./russian relationship over the past few years with the sanctions being ratcheted up by the u.s. and other countries as well. they want to put a little bit of brakes on that. it's a key here. the big win from this summit, i think, has already been had by the kremlin. the fact that it's taking place at all is a symbolic victory for vladimir putin. it's on par with the u.s. president, and it shows him respect, of course, and that sort of symbolism is something that is very meaningful indeed to the russian leader. he, i expert is very happy that this meeting is taking place at all. he's going to want to show his domestic audience and people watching all even the world, he's not going to back down in the face of, you know, american -- i mean how do you describe it, hostility perhaps on the issue of, for instance, glaegs of russian cyber attacks on the united states. i don't think we're going to see anything from vladimir putin on that in terms of a concession or even admission that russia engage this that kind of activity, the same with ukraine. don't expect any ground to be given by the crimeans. you look at the people being arrested, with alexei navalny who's in prison, his anti-corruption group be essentially outlawed and designated as an extremist group. the president says he's ready to talk than with president biden, they're going to inform him about it, but they're not going to discuss it with hem. there's this motorcade approaching villa la grange. these are the cars of the presidential administration, the limousines, the armored limousines. that's ooh the car where vladimir putin with flag out on front, there he is, arriving at this historic summit. these cars were brought in several days ago on russian military transport airport from moscow. there you see him arriving with his security team, entourage, and he'll be greeted by the president of the federation. we've talked a little bit about who would go first. it was some pretty fancy footwork arranging for vladimir putin to be greeted first of all by the president of the swiss federation. if he was going to be late as he often s he would be late for this important meeting with president biden, which is going to be taking place shortly after this, wolf. >> there we see the swiss president receiving the russia president vladimir putin. they're going to go inside, clarissa, and momentarily we're told president biden will show up and there will be a photo op with the three of them as well. >> and this is really the sort of moment that everybody's looking at. the russians love symbolism, people will be reading into every microscopic detail about the body language. you saw president putin there, i think, looking pretty relaxed and pretty jovial. this was a president once described by president george w. bush when he was a candidate as one cold dude and one who is certainly very difficult to read. so everybody is going to be watching very closely to see how that first greeting looks, whether it seems to be friendly, whether it seems automatically that each is trying to assert himself over the other. >> it's very carefully scripted, choreographed, all of this. the u.s. side wanted putin to arrive first because normally if biden would have arrived first, putin would have arrived late and not made him look good. >> putin has a way of making u.s. presidents wait and that's no accident. that's one-upmanship. bin biden will be appearing afterward. we should remember both leaders thought to talk now face-to-face mattered, was important, and if we could rehn, dial back a few weeks, when relations between the two countries were something of a precipice, right? tens of thoses on the u.s. border. alexei navalny facing death. he reached out and said we have to talk now to make sure it doesn't get worse. they pulled back from that precipice, but since then there have been other consequential russian cyber attacks, so still a very tense situation with genuine disagreements, and one, we should note, biden arrives with the allies unified in standing up to those threats. >> the first talks after the photo ops, the welcoming that we're about to see will include the two presidents plus secretary of state tony blinken and the russian foreign minister sergey lavrov. the four of them will meet in the first round and later in the day, it will be them. >> we're hearing the appetizer or the hors d'oeuvres will be to get out of the way, for example t u.s. is very upset about the treatment of alexei navalny. he cannot be allowed to languish in prison, to die in prison. the u.s. is upset about the treatment of ukraine. to get all of those issues out of the way that president biden feels strongly about, and then they'll get onto the main course which is the tougher issues of where can we cooperate. how do we build guardrails to keep this relationship on track. these are going to be small areas. this isn't going to be a huge broad reset by any stretch of the imagination, but the tricky part is setting those constructions or dialogues or pro ceases up to allow the relationship to continue beyond today. in some ways today is the easier part. it's continuing to keep that relationship on the tracks in the long term future that becomes tricky. and so today is all about building those foundations. >> by the way, this is a case where the app tierzs matter. we will not stand for the murder of alexei navalny or the invasion of ukraine in a way that biden's predecessor deliberately did not. he often raised questioning. maybe they didn't attack our elections. that was the previous president. to have him say, draw those lines. even if it won't -- >> and they know it won't. >> they know it won't, but the statements do have meaning. the test will be has the biden administration come up with a strategy with sticks in addition to any carrots they're offering to change, minimize, hold back, or at least keep from getting worse, this whole host of cyber attacks. that's a test for the biden administration. >> and, john berman, i think it's fair to say, president biden has been preparing decades for this moment that we're about to see unfold here in geneva right now. 36 years in the u.s. senate that for eight years as vice president of the united states, now he goes into this highly, highly critically important summit. >> he's a president who's met with not just russian leaders, but long enough to meet with soviet leaders as well, wolf. we're awaiting the arrival of president biden at this historic summit. as we wait, we're joined by cn former counterterrorism analyst and official, phil mudd. look. president putin arrived on time. he often shows up late. in terms of the profile that he will get, what do they know as they head into this meeting? >> i think there are two things you need to look at. high end and low end. at the low end, i'm not sure what you could tell president biden. as someone mentioned, he's talked to soviet leaders. he's been watching this for half a century. how do you go into the oval office and say this is how you understand vladimir putin. everybody knows what people think. he's done that in places like syria and crimea. i think the interesting intelligence biden would be seeing are stuff on cyber intrusions. up to this date, are we seeing that this week? really interesting question. remember the cyber group in russia that shut down a pipeline in the united states? here's a question i'm sure bind got an answer. how confident are they that they can find them and extradite them to america. that's a conversation that will be happened today. biden knows that stuff. the tactical part would be vl interesting. >> he knows coming to this he's going to get a much harder line. there wasn't even any line from former president trooump. so he's going to get a harder line from joe biden, but i know you think that putin is in the driver's cease actually here. explain why. >> yep. a divided america is good for vladimir putin. he tried to insert cyber attacks during the elections. america, including president biden have different interests including china. if you're vladimir putin in this summit, you're going to say i've got to get on the world stage with the biggest player on the planet along with the chinese, that is, president biden. already by having the meeting i think putin wins. i close by saying what's biden going to do about it? how is he going to confront russia? i don't see it happening. sanctions are already tough and putin get as what he wants. >> we're told president biden is en route. he should be arriving very shortly at the villa la grange where this summit will take place. president biden arrived moments ago. this is going carefully as scheduled. you're talking about putin has what he wants. what are d chances he has some information that could surprise vladimir putin? you know what? hang on one second. let's go to jeff zeleny on the ground. i think we're getting close to a presidential arrival. jeff. >> reporter: john, we are. we're seeing president biden's motorcade about to approach on k. wilson. it's named after woodrow wilson as mentioned earlier. he'll be making his way across the bridge over to the villa la grange. you can see the presidential flag and swiss flag on the beast. the motorcade has taken biden across europe for the last six days, and it's that journey that has led president biden to this moment. as he makes his way along with all of his advisers, he will be sitting in that meeting. the first meeting with tony blinken and the second meeting with all of his advisers. keep in mind as he told us the other day, he wants to verify first and then trust. of course, president biden has met president putin before, but this is a different meeting, a different moment, a different time. as the motorcade now makes its way across the bridge going around the other side of the bank of lake geneva, certainly much anticipation here on the streets. they've been closed down for the last several hours. flags from both countries waving in the breeze. in a few short moments, president biden will be arriving there with his first face-to-face is up summit with president putin. many are wondering if he should have this at all. he's the fifth american president to be having this meeting and it's coming at the same time as they had this open dialogue. certainly president bush, president obama, and president trump started the dialogue in the first six months of their term. president biden going a bit further doing a face-to-face meeting. he wants to see if he can have a stable relationship, open dialogue with president putin. we d not know how the summit will end, but we know finally it's about to begin. john? >> let's go back to wolf who's also in geneva. wolf. >> yeah. that motorcade is right where we are here in geneva. you see the russian flags. we were on that bridge yesterday before the american and russian flags were put there. we watched it all unfold. the swiss government obviously welcoming these two world leaders. the they're only a couple of minutes away from the villa la grange. right now the president of the united states will be arriving shortly. there will be a photo opportunity with the presidents, and then the formal meetings will begin, i'm sure. tough talks, very serious talks. kaitlan collins, our chief white house correspondent is on scene here in geneva. what are you hearing, kaitlan, on the first round when the secretary of state and the personal advise letter be joining the two presidents for the personal discussions? >> reporter: it's a little unusual that the one will be in the room. antony blinken, the secretary of state circumstance incredibly close to president biden, so that's going to be the one person in the room with him when the meeting kicks off. you'll see president biden arrive at any second as you see the motorcade making its way through geneva. and they're going to be in a room, president bide den, secretary blinken, president putin, and lavrov. that's going to be a critical meeting where they look each other in the eye and get a sense to how the day is going to go. the white house is preparing for any outcome. they're hoping there will not be any surprises, but they've lowered expectations. they do not expect a large amount of deliverables when they walk out the door. when they open it up to a few more staffers, those will be the ambassadors for the respective countries who have not been in their posts for the last several months. john sullivan, he came back to the united states for what he said were consultations, but it came amid very high tensions between the united states and russia. john sullivan said he would go back to russia before this meeting happened, but, wolf, that did not happen. that will be something people are be watching for, if it could be a potential concrete outcome as to whether it's over, whether they plan to send them back to each country. there are a lot of unknowns as they're waiting for president biden to arrive and get in the room with the russian leader and see how that's going to go. of course, as john was noting, president biden has a long history with russian leaders. he led several delegations there to talk about arms control even back in 1979. often president jimmy carter once dispatched him to lead those talks. it's not something new but a new situation giving that so many things have changed. it's not just arms control. cyber attacks and ransomware attacks have been brought to the front. if whours has said that is one of several things they expect president biden to confront him over. >> >> no one is closer to president biden than tony blinken. 20 years ago i remember he was a legislative assistant to senator biden on the foreign relations committee. they've worked very closely all of these years including eight years biden was vice president. there they are. it looks like the president is there. he's just arrived. the swiss president has welcomed him. they're about to waung in. it's interesting, clarissa. you see the president of the united states. you see the swiss president guy parmelin. we don't see putin there, clarissa. >> yes. we plan to see all three together. president biden arriving last, which was by the u.s.'s design. no one wanted to see an awkward situation where the u.s. president had to sit often and wait where president biden is fond of such displays of one upmanship. we should see all three greet each other and we'll be watching closely to see what if anything they can glean from the body language. we talked about tony blink ken, the secretary of state and russia's secretary, sergey lavrov, a very seasoned diplomat who has been doing this for decades. he can be very charming, very ins inscr inscrutable. he never looked in my eye. he understands that's a very powerful tactic for maintaining control of the situation. the russian side has very experienced diplomats and politicians at their disposal. it will be interesting to see how they interact. >> the russian foreign minister as clarissa knows, he's fluid in english. >> i have as well. at the end of the interview, he looked me in the eye and said, you sound quite pathetic. my goodness. i'll take that as a badge of honor. they find ways to be unnerving. >> lavrov is a survivor. le you know, it's interesting as we look at the next hour. they say four to five hours of talks. they don't really know because they have deliberately built flexibility to go longer or a possibility to go shorter if you have severe disagreements, but it's the former i would focus on, allowing for these to go a bit longer. perhaps we have more to talk about, make more progress here or there, and they have a lot of experienced folks in the room to do this. this is not trump/kim based on personality and hopes yochl view secretary blinken, the national security adviser jake sullivan, a diplomat like sergey lavrov, and they're going to be doing these breakout expanded sessions rather than one on one, where they hope to gain flexibility >> i was wondering -- you two know better than i -- how much back channelling will there be between the two, isolating the areas of potential cooperation? >> normally in a summit like this, there's a lot of back channelling going on, and they usually know in advance before the talks begin what the outcome is going to be. i'm anxious to get your thoughts. i suspect they don't know what the outcome of the summit is going to be. >> they don't, but they're certain to have done more groundwork than was the norm during the trump administration. i remember covering the trump/kim summit. i remember mike pompeo arriving early hoping to meet with his counterpart, and that didn't happen. we know how that turned out. a lot of pomp and circumstance, but no key areas. again, as we've discussed rep repeatedly, so many of these are intractable. >> hold on for a moment. this photo op issen to take place. we'll hear from the swiss president guy parmelin. [ speaking foreign language ] [ speaking foreign language ] >> best wishes and good-bye. [ speaking foreign language ] [ speaking foreign language ] >> mr. president of the russian federation, mr. president of the united states of america, on behalf of the swiss government, i would like to welcome you to geneva, the city of peace. it is an honor and a pleasure for switzerland to host you here for the summit, and in accordance with its tradition of good officers, promote dialogue and mutual understanding. i wish you both presidents a fruitful dialogue in the interest of your two countries and the world. best wishes and good-bye .