rules that are now taking effect? and an expansion of new york city s vaccine mandate. and the trump-fueled split in the republican party is worsening in georgia. an ousted u.s. senator and ally of the former president is now running against the top trump target. the state s gop governor. we want to welcome our viewers here in the united states and around the world. i m wolf blitzer. you re in the situation room. let s go straight to the white house and our chief national affairs correspondent jeff zeleny who is joining us right now. president biden is facing very significant new tests with both russia and china. and there are now new developments unfolding on both fronts. update our viewers. the white house is announcing a boycott of the 2022 winter olympic games in beijing. not for athletes but for u.s. diplomats. they are simply not sending a delegation to beijing next year, calling out human rights abuses. this is coming on the eve of a critical phone call between p
what i am doing is putting together what i believe to be will be the most comprehensive and meaningful set of initiatives to make it very, very difficult for mr. putin to go ahead and do what people are worried he may do. tonight tensions also escalating with china as the u.s. takes a rare step of imposing a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 winter olympics in beijing. the athletes on team usa have our full support. we will be behind them 100% as we cheer them on from home. we will not be contributing to the fanfare of the games. reporter: psaki said the president is intent on calling out forced labor and human rights abuses in china but the u.s. stopping short of a full boycott like the u.s. did in 1980 when president jimmy carter protested the moscow olympics, keeping american athletes from taking part in the games. i don t think that we felt it
So the white house is going to be watching to see how many demands the russian president is making because you heard jeff mention there that one of their clearest ones they ve made before is they don t want ukraine getting anywhere near nato. they don t want them joining. that s been a big complaint they ve said that ukraine is getting too close to the west and that s been behind all of the actions you ve seen lately. but the white house will be watching to see what else is involved in this conversation and what else the russian president brings with him. and president biden will be trying to talk about ways where they hopefully can de-escalate but they also have to be prepared for the situation that that wmay not happen. that s going to be a big focus of the conversation. we ll have to see what the outcome of it is going to be. evan, you are a biden biographer. how will the president draw on his decades of foreign policy experience, his longstanding relationships with key european l
Intel there. they see the troops amassing on the border. that s why this phone call tomorrow morning, this virtual meeting if you will, without question, is the highest stakes, most critical conversation president biden has had since taking office with a foreign leader. things have not been as tense or at a low point in their relationship. we were all back in geneva for the summit in june. seems like a very long time ago for this president, wolf. kaitlan, in addition to russia, president biden is also juggling this growing tension with china. what more can you tell us about your excellent reporting on this diplomatic boycott by the u.s. of the beijing olympics? this is a decision that became pretty clear the white house was going to make several weeks ago. i think they had still been meeting and discussing it privately, discussing when was the right time to announce that, yes, the u.s. is going to implement a diplomatic boycott of those winter games in beijing in february of 2022,
Was the right step to penalize athletes who have been training, preparing for this moment and we felt that we could send a clear message by not sending an official u.s. delegation. reporter: so that diplomatic boycott certainly a symbolic move but a significant one as well that will complicate the tense relationship between the u.s. and china. now as for that phone call, scheduled for tomorrow morning with russian president vladimir putin, it s going to be a virtual meeting. and president biden spent some time this afternoon on the phone with european leaders and allies trying to get on the same page here before that conversation tomorrow. we do know that president putin is focused on ukraine joining nato. he does not want that to happen. he s looking for guarantees from the u.s. but a senior administration official tells us they are not accepting any red lines, even on this nato subject, wolf. jeff, i want you to stand by. i want to bring you back but i