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PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA denied having a bad relationship with Vladimir Putin, even though he said the Russian leader can appear to have a “slouch” and sometimes looks “like the bored kid in the back of the classroom.”
The comments came at a White House press conference yesterday, two days after Obama canceled a summit in Moscow with Putin due to what the United States called a lack of progress on key issues and Russia’s granting asylum to US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden.
“I don’t have a bad personal relationship with Putin,” Obama insisted. “When we have conversations, they’re candid, they’re blunt; oftentimes, they’re constructive.
“I know the press likes to focus on body language and he’s got that kind of slouch, looking like the bored kid in the back of the classroom. But the truth is, is that when we’re in conversations together, oftentimes it’s very productive,” the president said.
Aside from Snowden, Washington and Moscow disagree on issues that include the war in Syria, missile defence, nuclear disarmament and human rights.
As Russia’s defense and foreign ministers met in Washington with their US counterparts, Obama said relations have chilled since Putin’s return to the Russian presidency in May 2012.
“I think there’s always been some tension in the US-Russian relationship after the fall of the Soviet Union,” Obama said.
“There’s been cooperation in some areas. There’s been competition in others. It is true that in my first four years in working with President Medvedev, we made a lot of progress.”
Medvedev was Russia’s leader between 2008 and 2012 while then former president Putin took a turn as prime minister, having first boosted the powers of the office, before returning to the top job.
This period saw a brief flowering of joint US-Russian projects, including a new strategic arms reduction treaty and a deal that saw Russia help supply US forces in Afghanistan.
“What’s also true is, is that when President Putin… came back into power, I think we saw more rhetoric on the Russian side that was anti-American, that played into some of the old stereotypes about the Cold War,” Obama said.
“And I’ve encouraged Mr Putin to think forward as opposed to backwards on those issues. With mixed success.”
Obama however said he was against a boycott of Russia’s Winter Olympics next year over a controversial new Russian law banning “homosexual propaganda.”
Some gay rights activists around the world have called for a boycott, and US Senator Lindsey Graham said he thought Washington should consider boycotting the Games if Russia were to grant asylum to Snowden.
There is a precedent: the United States boycotted the 1980 Moscow Summer Olympics following the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan.
As Obama spoke Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was sparring with his US counterpart John Kerry at the State Department.
Lavrov acknowledged that ties were strained, but played down talk of a return to the era when the West faced off against the Soviet bloc.
Another sore point between the two countries are US missile defence plans in Europe. Russia charges that the missile shield is designed to reduce the deterrent effect of Moscow’s arsenal and thus alter the balance of power on the continent.
- AFP, 2013
If a former KGB or Russian intelligence officer fled from Russia and seeked asylum in the US he would be granted, sat down and every ounce of knowledge extracted from his head within 24hrs. America (as much as i love the country) has been caught red handed spying on its allies from around the world. Why do the thinking other countries won’t do the same if the opportunity arises?
It’s all just so petty, they let Snowdon in so America’s throwing it’s toys out of it’s pram but only having minor sissy fit to test the water and see if Russia will come round to its way of thinking, they should boycott the Olympics in support of human rights but America only thinks of itself, it boils down to getting Snowdon back and nothing else sadly!
The sad part is snowden told the world what the alternative media has been saying all along so I personally learned nothing new from his whistling blowing
But still fair play to him
The thing that amazes me about the whole Snowden episode is that people were actually surprised by the revelations.
For many years I’ve taken it as a given that all major governments worldwide have been monitoring internet traffic and phone lines for suspicious activity.
Yes but fagan he provided proof and didn’t throw in a lot of crap about reptilian shape shifters to boot.
What’s a reptilian shape shifter ?
Ask David Icke.
David Icke is either stone mad, or a shrewd businessman who’s made a fortune out of pretending to be stone mad!
Sorry lads I’m lost… reptilians , shape shifting mad men who apparently turn into a stone
Wtf are you boys smoking … This is not helping legalisation at all
Such horrible prejudice against all LGBT’s. He shouldn’t be allowed to get away with it..
Yes, niall,
But that’s not the issue here, is it?
Should a campaign be started to boycott the World Cup in brazil? and since the Olympics are going to held in that country also,should the campaign continue,because I think you will find that brazil has it’s human rights issues,sport should not be used as a political tool in my opinion.
Precisely. If only countries who have a clean human rights conscious could host major sporting events; well the only countries who could host them would be New Zealand and the Scandanavians
Hopefully Uncle Sam gets off his tush and catches up with this guy. Who does he think he is running around the world trying to depict the USA as an awful nation for trying to protect its citizens against terrorism yet he is quite happy to settle in Russia where homosexuals are viciously persecuted on a daily basis.
http://www.thejournal.ie/yelena-mizulina-profile-putin-moral-crusader-1029431-Aug2013/
This article is not nice to read it is very informative and yet this is the sort of country Snowden is willing to settl in so much for being a civil liberties guy.
Baaaa……
Darryl you need to stop reading USA Today!
John have seen a psychiatrist about your sheep fetish. It’s not normal you know. In fact I believe it’s illegal.
Fight fight fight…….
*Snowden* a combination of autocorrect and my own stupidity of not rereading
have your say