Supporters of the Russian oponent of Vladimir Putin, Alexei Navalny, gathered on June 15 2021 in the center of Geneva, right in the middle of the Plainpalais square. A rally that caught an international media attention.

A Russian activist who lives in Geneva and is interviewed anonymously explains in this audio interview what she thought would come out of this summit, trusting President of the United States of America Joseph Biden to handle it with Russian's counterpart Vladimir Putin the best he could. "We do not expect anything special from this summit though. Putin has everything to gain by meeting with different world leaders," says another source named Danila, a Russian citizen living in Switzerland who came especially from Zurich and quoted by the daily Swiss newspaper Le Temps. The rally e man hopes that the rally in support of Alexei Navalny will be heard by President Biden.

Olga Baranova, activist and member of the Socialist Party in Geneva, said in an article for the Swiss online media outlet Watson that the summit between Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin offered a platform for supporters of the imprisoned activist "because everyone is watching Geneva these days. This great moment of high diplomacy is a unique opportunity to remind that Russia is not a flawed democracy as some people think here. It is an extremely repressive autocratic regime..."

As for Alexei Navalny, he is the symbol of the repression in Russia, because there are many opponents of the regime who are imprisoned or killed there. According to Olga Baranova, "in the past, there have been several demonstrations on the same subject in Geneva, on the Place des Nations in particular, and there was almost no media coverage. Today, it is very different. Few people in Switzerland are really aware of the problems posed by the way Alexei Navalny is treated by the Russian regime, even in the progressive movements. There are a lot of preconceived notions about Russia, which limits engagement. Also, in Switzerland, the Russian diaspora is not very organized and politicized. Moreover, it is also more reluctant to mobilize."