Media Melee Leaves Journalists Outside Summit

Politico: “Journalists from both countries rushed to the site of the meeting — the Villa La Grange, an 18th century building located in a park near Lake Geneva — but were stopped by U.S. and Russian security and government officials and told to line up separately and in single file. … Instead, journalists and officials screamed as a Swiss official kept urging journalists and officials to be quiet. Eventually nine U.S. journalists and an unknown number of Russian journalists were allowed inside the villa’s library, where Biden and Putin were seated.”

“The shoving didn’t stop. Journalists pushed and yelled at each other to move. After just a minute or two, Russian security pulled the red rope separating the media from the leaders to try to keep the media further away … Russian security yelled at journalists to get out of the room, and began pushing journalists. U.S. journalists and White House officials began screaming that the Russian security should stop touching them.”