WASHINGTON ? Russia?s newly inaugurated president, Vladimir V. Putin, will not attend a summit meeting of world leaders in Maryland next week, the White House said on Wednesday, postponing until June the much-anticipated first meeting of President Obama and Mr. Putin as the leaders of their respective countries.
The surprising White House announcement, which came after a telephone call between the men, serves to underscore what appears to be a difficult start to their relationship.
It comes two months after Mr. Putin was elected for a third time to the Russian presidency following a campaign during which he used strident anti-American language, at one point acccusing Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton of trying to stoke political unrest in Russia.
After the election, the Obama administration debated how to respond, with some officials favoring strong condemnation of the results. The White House ultimately settled on a tempered statement, not directly congratulating Mr. Putin but saying that the United States looked forward to working with him. But Mr. Obama pointedly took several days to call Mr. Putin to congratulate him; by contrast, he called Fran�ois Hollande within hours of his victory over Nicolas Sarkozy in the French presidential elections on Sunday.
Of course, the White House statement made no note of any of this. ?In their May 9 telephone conversation, President Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin commemorated the occasion of Russia?s celebration of Victory in Europe day,? the statement said blandly, describing Wednesday?s phone call.
?Noting his responsibilities to finalize cabinet appointments in the new Russian government, President Putin expressed his regret that he would be unable to attend the G-8 Summit at Camp David on May 18-19. President Obama expressed his understanding of President Putin?s decision and welcomed the participation of Russian Prime Minister Medvedev at the G-8 Summit,? the statement said. Mr. Medvedev was Mr. Putin?s predecessor as president, but did not run for re-election.
The White House said that Mr. Putin and Mr. Obama would meet next month at the next big world leaders meeting, in Los Cabos, Mexico.
The Russian president?s decision to not attend the summit meeting is particularly surprising since several Obama administration officials, as well as European diplomats, said the meeting had been moved to the Camp David presidential retreat in northern Maryland to accommodate him. The meeting is scheduled to take place the day before a summit meeting in Chicago of leaders of NATO member countries, and American officials decided to hold the two meetings in separate places to avoid putting Mr. Putin in an awkward position, since he would not be attending the NATO meeting.
But on Wednesday, White House officials disputed that characterization. ?The president supported moving the summit to Camp David because he preferred having a more relaxed atmosphere to facilitate a candid discussion among world leaders,? said Benjamin Rhodes, the director for strategic communications at the National Security Council.
Mr. Putin served as Russia?s president for eight years, until 2008, when his second term ended; he then ran for, and won, the post of prime minister, a position he held until he was once again elected president in March.
Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=0f81641d27ba430390794182b04cedfa
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