Why has Putin and his autocratic regime become so much more repressive at home in recent weeks? Why is Putin becoming so increasingly paranoid? THREAD 1/

And Putin is not de-escalating or seeking to stabilize relations with the West, but debilitating the work of the US embassy in Russia and adding more EU officials to the Russian sanctions list? Why? Why now? 2/

Is this really the best moment for a Biden-Putin summit? The mere event of a meeting is a win for Putin, but what does Biden or the American people get out of it? If the promise of a future summit was supposed to modify Putin's bad behavior, that strategy is not working. 3/

Summits must seek to advance concrete American national interests. What will those be in June? I'm having a hard time thinking of even small items on a list of deliverables. (Obama pulled down his planned Putin summit in 2013 because of a lack of deliverables & Snowden) 4/

Maybe better to wait a bit? Or downgrade as a pull-aside at some multilateral meeting instead. Stand-alone summits amp up expectations. & Biden doesn't want to be seen as rewarding or ignoring Putin's new bad behavior. & right now, it's bad and getting worse. 5/ END THREAD