Obama canceled meeting with Putin

Source: B92

Washington - U.S. President Barack Obama has decided not to meet separately with Russian President Vladimir Putin during the G20 Summit in Russia next month,AP.

/Tanjug, file/

Obama's presence at the G20 summit in St. Petersburg was confirmed earlier, but the meeting of the two presidents was uncertain due to the additional tightening of relations between the U.S. and Russia over the Kremlin's decision to grant asylum to Edward Snowden.
Although the last few days neither Obama nor the White House representatives wanted to talk about the potential meeting with Putin, it is now reported that "a plan to have a separate meeting has been canceled."

"There are times when they (the Russian authorities) go back to the Cold War mentality. What I keep telling them, and their President Putin is that it is the past," Obama said in a talk show of the famous TV man Jay Leno.

Obama also indirectly criticized Russia for its treatment of homosexuals, and also said that he "is disappointed by the decision of the Kremlin to grant asylum to Snowden."