(GENEVA) — After tight smiles and a firm handshake that made for an image both men wanted the world to see, followed by a chaotic photo op and about three-and-a-half hours of tense talks, U.S. President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin emerged to spin their summit at dueling news conferences Wednesday.
Both men called their meeting positive, but while Biden said he raised serious concerns and warned of consequences, he did not claim he got Putin to commit to changing his behavior and the Russian leader accepted no responsibility for cyberattacks on the U.S. or for anything else.
Biden had called for the meeting with Putin two months ago, alarmed about Russian aggression toward Ukraine.
Since then, the issue of cyberattacks, including a ransomware strike on an American oil pipeline company that disrupted the nation's gasoline supply -- which the U.S. says was carried out by Russian hackers -- has become a key point of contention.
Biden said he made clear that "certain critical infrastructure" is off-limits to attack "period," saying he gave the Russians a list of 16 American entities and told Putin if the attacks continue, the U.S. was ready to hit back.
"I pointed out to him that we have significant cyber capability, and he knows it," he said.
Overall, while Putin gained a fresh presence on the world stage, Biden was under pressure to produce what's being called "deliverables" -- concrete results from how he said he would confront Putin -- and whether he made met his goal of restoring "stability" and "predictability" to the post-Trump superpower relationship, which both Biden and Putin agreed had reached a "low point."
Leading up to the meeting, at the G-7 summit, Biden said the world's democracies were "in a contest with autocrats" while also calling Putin "a worthy adversary."
Here are some key takeaways:
1) What can be learned from the leaders' body language?
Both men will likely seize on photos of them looking confident -- to project an image of cooling tensions between the two countries.
ABC News Chief Global Affairs Correspondent Martha Raddatz highlighted what she called the "incredible" body language in both the handshake outside the Swiss villa then and inside as they sat down for a photo op. The Russian government was quick to release photos of the two men smiling at each other, appearing to frame the leaders as equals.
"I think President Putin, you saw those pictures of president Putin with President Biden. That's essentially what he wants right there," Raddatz said. "The relaxed President Putin sitting back in his chair, Joe Biden looking relaxed as well. All of this is so rehearsed."
While the photo op of the pair sitting down was chaotic -- with Russian security pushing out American press at one point -- both leaders appeared relaxed. Biden, who was the first to extend his hand for a handshake inside, sat with his legs crossed, hands in his lap and was seen smiling at several points. Putin leaned back in his chair, as he often does, and looked stoic, yet at ease.
"They know the world is looking at those pictures, especially Vladimir Putin. He wants to be on the world stage," Raddatz added.