John Kerry will fly to Russia to discuss climate change
John Kerry will travel to next week to discuss 'global climate ambition,' the State Department announced. Kerry, who serves as President 's special envoy on climate issues, will meet with various Russian officials during his July 12 through July 15 trip to Moscow. No further details were released. Kerry will be the highest-ranking Biden official yet to visit the country. The trip comes as Biden is facing criticism for his response to Russian President when it comes to a series of ransomware attacks and his failure to 'get tough' on Russia despite vowing retaliation if there were any attacks on U.S. critical infrastructure. Rep. John Katko told DailyMail.com last week the U.S. is 'facing a time of reckoning' in relations with Russia. 'Only weeks after President Biden sat down with Putin and allegedly talked a tough game with Russia, hackers from Russia again attacked thousands of U.S. companies, compromising our nation's critical infrastructure,' Katko, ranking member of the House Committee on Homeland Security, said. Other Republicans have also piled on the criticism. Biden said on Wednesday that he will personally deliver a message to Putin about the rash of cyber attacks taking place on American companies and groups. 'I will deliver it to him,' he told reporters at the when asked his message for the Russian president. It's unclear how the message will be transmitted or when and comes less than three weeks after he warned Putin he would respond if the US was hit by another hack. Last week, a U.S. software firm was hit by a REvil - a Russian cybercriminal group - in a ransomware attack that crippled hundreds of companies worldwide. Kaseya provides services to more than 40,000 organizations and it was considered the single, largest global ransomware attack on record. Additionally, Russia's S.V.R. intelligence agency hacked a contractor for the Republican National Committee last week, the reported, although the committee said none of its data had been breached. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Wednesday the administration won't 'preview our punches' and has a 'range of options' when it comes to a response. Meanwhile, some Biden aides are skeptical that Putin will act to rein in cyber criminals based in Russia. 'He's not going to,' says one administration official told . Without Putin intervening, 'the criminal groups will keep doing what they're doing' the official says. 'He's wreaking havoc.' Psaki said on Tuesday that the US and Russia have kept up a dialogue on the issue since the June 16 sitdown between the two leaders. Since the Geneva summit 'we have undertaken expert-level talks that are continuing, and we expect to have another meeting next week focused on ransomware attacks,' she said. 'And I will just reiterate a message that these officials are sending. As the President made clear to President Putin when they met, if the Russian government cannot or will not take action against criminal actors residing in Russia, we will take action or reserve the right to take action on our own,' she added. In April, Russia participated in a virtual White House climate summit. President Biden said at the time that he was 'heartened' that Putin called for collaborating with other countries to advance carbon dioxide removal. 'The United States looks forward to working with Russia and other countries on that endeavor,' Biden said. China and then the United States lead the globe in climate-damaging emissions of coal and petroleum fumes, according to the Associated Press, but Russia, at No. 4 globally due to its dependence on coal burning, is an outsize contributor to climate change relative to the size of its economy and population.