The United States and the Russian Federation have always rivaled, whether it be who was to produce the most powerful nuclear weaponry, to be the first in space, or in war. The two countries would rarely find compromise on anything. Even in modern times when it seems that tensions would have died down, the tentative good relations formed during President Trump’s term were shattered.

The Russian Prime Minister has mentioned in an interview that he would not discuss the following two topics with President Joe Biden: the topic about Alexei Navalny, and the topic of Ukraine entering NATO. Alexei Navalny is Putin’s strongest opposition, and is the main reason for the protests against the President.

In an exclusive interview with ABC News, we witnessed President Biden call Vladimir Putin a “killer” and that “Russia would pay a price for meddling with the election”. Putin replied by saying “it takes one to know one” and pulled an ambassador back to Moscow. The two nuclear superpowers fighting with words is putting the rest of the world on edge. 

Just a decade earlier, in 2011 when Biden was shown around Putin’s office, he said to the Russian president, “Mr. Prime Minister, I’m looking into your eyes, and I don’t think you have a soul.” Biden recalled that he simply smiled and said that he was “glad they understood each other.” With a personal war going between the two, and now Biden in presidential power, everyone is wondering, what will happen next?

“Unless true reform happens in Russia, and the Russia of the future party becomes the majority party, the government will mostly be similar to that of the USSR as it is currently. Until then though the US won’t really be able to have a solid relationship with Russia and will be thought of as a possible threat,” says politically active San Pasqual student Nicholas Speer. 

Speer believes that the protests in Russia that Vladimir refuses to discuss have been created by the President’s own ignorance towards the people’s cries.

The top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Paul McCaul, predicts that this will be the most “important” and “dangerous” meeting of his entire presidential career. This event occurring in Geneva on the 16th of June will definitely be an event that will go down in history, whether as a tentative alliance or a new cold war  is yet to be known.