Biden, Putin handshake kicks off Geneva summit

Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin kicked off their summit Wednesday with a handshake outside the Geneva villa where the two presidents plan to confront each other over the worst U.S.-Russia tensions in years.    

Following an introduction by their host, Swiss President Guy Parmelin, Biden extended his arm for his first handshake with Putin since taking office in January.    

"It's always better to meet face to face," Biden said as the two men sat down with their top diplomats, kicking off the summit, where ghosts of the Cold War hovered over modern-day U.S. concerns about Russian cyberattacks and what the White House sees as a dangerous authoritarian drift.    

Striking a positive note, Putin said he hoped the "meeting will be productive" as the tete-a-tete opened.     

The setting - a sumptuous villa overlooking Lake Geneva - may be picturesque, but a gruelling diplomatic face-off that could last up to five hours awaits, with no food breaks planned.   

"There will be no breaking of bread," a senior U.S. official said.    

The choice of Geneva, following long U.S.-Russian negotiations, recalls the Cold War summit between U.S. president Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in the Swiss city in 1985.    

The villa, surrounded by a lush park, was under intense security. Grey patrol boats cruised along the lake front and heavily-armed camouflaged troops stood guard at a nearby yacht marina.     

The classical villa's symmetrical design had made it possible to split it evenly so both leaders could have access to exactly the same amount of space, a Geneva protocol official told Swiss public broadcaster RTS.    

In contrast with 1985, tensions are less about strategic nuclear weapons and competing...