The summit between President Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin has come to an end, with the latter describing the sessions as “constructive” in a news conference.

The official meeting between the two officials ran less than the predicted four to five hours, with the final session ending just past 5 p.m. local time, CNN reported.

A White House aide told the news outlet that the meeting was one larger bilateral meeting and not two bigger meetings as previously planned. Run time for the first session was 93 minutes, followed by a 45-minute break and a 65-minute second session.

Biden was seated across the table from Putin during the expanded meeting in a different room from the earlier session that was held in a book-lined study at the Villa la Grange, according to CNN.

There were no announced plans for a meal together with Biden and Putin.

Each president will also hold separate news conferences on Wednesday, which was being led by Putin.

During the press briefing, Putin said that Biden did not invite him to the White House during the meetings but maintained that the conditions have to be right for such a meeting when pressed on the issue.

Putin was also asked by reporters about the Black Lives Matter movement in the U.S., activist Alexey Navalny, and the Jan. 6 Capital riots.

In response to the BLM demonstrations, Putin said, “We sympathize with what is happening in the states, but we do not wish that to happen in Russia.”

Putin also said he did not recall an incident when Biden was vice president under the Obama administration a decade earlier when Biden looked into the Russian president’s eyes and saw no soul.

One of the few things Biden and Putin can agree is that Russian-US relations are at about their lowest ebb since the Cold War
One of the few things Biden and Putin can agree is that Russian-US relations are at about their lowest ebb since the Cold War AFP / Angela WEISS
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