WASHINGTON, June 16. /TASS/. The Geneva summit marks Russia’s restoration to great power status, Senior Vice President for Europe, Eurasia, and the Arctic at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies Heather Conley told TASS, commenting on the outcome of Wednesday’s meeting between Presidents Vladimir Putin of Russia and Joe Biden of the United States.

"I believe the summit achieved the immediate objectives of both leaders. Today, Russia was restored to great power status as a ‘worthy adversary’ and Mr. Putin galvanized world attention. Mr. Biden was able to speak to Mr. Putin face to face about a series of difficulties in the bilateral relationship and hopefully construct ‘guardrails’ around the most problematic areas such as cyberattacks and Alexei Navalny," she pointed out.

According to the expert, "there was some positive news: ambassadors will return to their posts, technical groups will be formed on cyber and arms control and there may even be a prisoner exchange." "But we won’t know if anything will really change until the Kremlin decides to test a redline or run into a guard rail and in turn, if we see the US proceed with ‘devastating consequences.’ As Mr. Biden noted, ‘I am not confident he (Mr. Putin) will change his behavior.’ We end where we began," Conly concluded.