Obama cancels Moscow meeting with Putin
David Jackson, USA TODAY 10:56 a.m. EDT August 7, 2013
President Obama has canceled a planned private meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow amid disputes over Edward Snowden and other issues, the administration said Wednesday.
Obama still plans to attend the Group of 20 nations summit in St. Petersburg, Russia, during the first week in September.
"Following a careful review begun in July, we have reached the conclusion that there is not enough recent progress in our bilateral agenda with Russia to hold a U.S.-Russia Summit in early September," said White House press secretary Jay Carney.
Carney added that Obama "still looks forward to traveling to St. Petersburg on September 5-6 to attend the G-20 Summit."
Putin and the Kremlin did not provide immediate reaction.
RIA Novosti, the Russian news agency, quoted an unnamed diplomatic source in the Kremlin as saying that the invitation to Obama for a summit meeting "remains in force" should he change his mind.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov and Putin's aide, Yury Ushakov, met with U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul on Wednesday evening to discuss a Friday meeting involving U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and their Russian counterparts.
In recent months, the United States and Russia have argued over Syria, Iran and nuclear defense, even before Russia's decision last week to grant temporary asylum to National Security Agency surveillance program leaker Edward Snowden.
Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., applauded Obama's decision, saying that "Putin is acting like a schoolyard bully and doesn't deserve the respect a bilateral summit would have accorded him."
In place of the once-planned Moscow summit, the White House announced Wednesday that Obama will travel to Stockholm, Sweden, on Sept. 4-5, before heading on to the G-20 in St. Petersburg.
Wednesday's announcement will probably complicate the administration's efforts to "re-set" U.S.-Russian relations in the wake of tensions during the George W. Bush administration.
The rare diplomatic snub also comes six months before the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, on the Black Sea.
In his statement, Carney cited achievements with the Russians during Obama's first term, including a new arms control treaty and cooperation on the Afghanistan war and efforts to curb nuclear development in Iran and North Korea.
But Snowden's status and other issues have made things harder.
"Given our lack of progress on issues such as missile defense and arms control, trade and commercial relations, global security issues, and human rights and civil society in the last 12 months, we have informed the Russian government that we believe it would be more constructive to postpone the summit until we have more results from our shared agenda," Carney said.
Carney said the United States does want to improve relations with Russia, noting the Kerry-Hagel meeting on Friday with Russian foreign service and defense officials. They will "discuss how we can best make progress moving forward on the full range of issues in our bilateral relationship," Carney said.
During an interview Tuesday on NBC's
Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Obama said he was "disappointed" with Russia's decision to grant temporary asylum to Snowden, who would otherwise face criminal charges in the United States.
While Putin's government has been cooperative on items such as Afghanistan, counter-terrorism and the Boston Marathon bombing investigation, Obama said, the Snowden decision reflects "some underlying challenges that we've had with Russia lately."
Said Obama: "There have been times where they slip back into Cold War thinking and a Cold War mentality. And what I consistently say to them, and what I say to President Putin, is that's the past and we've got to think about the future, and there's no reason why we shouldn't be able to cooperate more effectively than we do."
Obama and Putin had what appeared to be a frosty one-one-meeting during a G-8 summit in Northern Ireland two months ago.
When Leno showed Obama a grim-looking picture of him and Putin, the U.S. president said, "when we have meetings we can have some pretty blunt exchanges and animated exchanges. But he's got -- that seems to be his preferred style during press conferences, is sitting back and not looking too excited."
Contributing: Anna Arutunyan
