Biden-Putin summit: Key takeaways from an 'all business' meeting in Geneva

GENEVA — President Joe Biden said Wednesday that he made it clear in his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin that the U.S.

will act against Russia if it continues with behavior that harms America's interests — even as Washington keeps trying to find areas of common ground.

Biden said in a news conference after the meeting that the tone was good and that the talks weren't conducted in a "hyperbolic atmosphere." He acknowledged that it will take time to know whether there will be any significant progress and that he wasn't confident that he had done anything to change Putin's behavior.

Biden met with Putin for just under four hours, slightly shorter than White House officials had expected but plenty of time to cover critical issues, Biden said.

Going into the meeting, Biden said a key issue would be a string of cyberattacks against the U.S.

Biden said he warned Putin that the U.S.

has significant cyber capabilities and that if Putin violates basic norms, Russia will be met with a response in that space.

Biden said that he expects Russia to act against groups in its territory carrying out ransomware attacks and that officials from both countries will continue talks.

Appearing to speak more to a domestic audience, Biden said he would continue to call out Russia for human rights violations, saying doing so was core to America's values.

He said he spoke to Putin about the jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny and what would happen should he die in detention.

"I made it clear to him that I believe the consequences of that would be devastating for Russia," Biden said.

The two countries will allow their ambassadors to return to their overseas posts after both were pressured to return home in April, when Biden announced a new round of sanctions against Russia and the expulsion of Russian diplomats in response to election interference, cyberattacks and other allegations.

Biden did appear to lose his cool at the end of the news conference, snapping at a journalist who asked why he had confidence that Putin would change his behavior.

He took no responsibility for many of the key issues on which Biden has said Russia needs to change its behavior, including cyberattacks, aggression against Ukraine and human rights violations within Russia