The mood was reserved when Americans and Russians met today in Geneva.

On paper, the meeting was about a nuclear agreement, but it is also seen as a test of whether the icy relationship can thaw something.

Any hopes in that direction - or fears, depending on who you ask - got a thorn even before the meeting.

On Tuesday night, the White House accused Russia of already participating in the 2022 US congressional election through misinformation.

"It is a pure violation of our sovereignty," President Biden said in a speech in Washington.

Biden added that Putin "sits on an economy with nuclear weapons and oil but nothing else", which received a sharp reaction from Moscow.

- The United States can hardly be called a partner.

It is more like an opponent, said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

Xi and Putin "besties"

Today's meeting in Geneva follows Biden's meeting with Putin in June.

That the United States last week gave the go-ahead for the controversial Russian-European gas pipeline Nord Stream 2 has also been described as an "olive branch" of reconciliation to Russia.

That move met with criticism from Ukraine and Poland.

At the same time, there is widespread American concern about Russia's and China's deepening cooperation.

The "besties" Putin and Xi Jingping have declared their friendship with each other, most recently last month.

The idea of ​​luring Russia away from China has been raised in American expert circles, but the disagreement between Russia and Western countries is rock hard, especially after Russia's annexation of the Crimean peninsula in 2014. Instead, Russia has turned its eyes east, according to experts SVT spoke to.

"Easier to the east"

China as a good neighbor is always good for Russia, but many in Moscow do not believe that the relationship with the West can even be repaired, according to Andrei Baklitsky at Russian university MGIMO.

- Ideally, Russia wants to develop the relationship both west and east, but right now it is much easier to the east.

Olya Oliker, European head of the think tank Crisis Group, says that Russia does not escape the fact that it still has a large part of its country Europe, but that it continues to develop the China relationship.

- There is room for it to grow and it will probably do the same.