Putin Isn’t Going to the Camp David G-8

Putin Isn’t Going to the Camp David G-8. In his place will be Medvedev. The White House makes the Kremlin’s announcement public. The official reason is the need to form the Cabinet, but there is also a certain tension between the two powers.

New Russian President Vladimir Putin will not be at the G-8 at Camp David on May 18; in his place, Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev is landing in America. The announcement came at night in Italy. The official reason is that Putin has to complete the formation of a new government.

In any case, the two leaders, after having confirmed their partnership in these great bilateral times — from nuclear security, to Afghanistan, to the WTO — have confirmed that they will see each other June 17 and 19 in Los Cabos, Mexico, where the G-20 summit will be held.

Three days ago, within hours of his inauguration at the Kremlin, Putin signed a decree on foreign policy guidelines in which he stressed the Russian desire to increase cooperation with Washington “to a truly strategic level,” stipulating, however, that relations must be based on “equality, noninterference in internal relations, and respect for the interests of one another.” He asked for assurances that U.S. missile defenses do not aim to undermine Russia’s security by weakening its nuclear deterrent.

Behind Putin’s absence at the first meeting of the Greats after his inauguration, there is, then, a certain tension with Washington, which the president has accused of supporting anti-Kremlin protests in recent months. The former prime minister based his re-election campaign on strong criticism of the White House. For its part, the U.S. has said that it is “disturbed” by the images of police violence against demonstrators.

And the change of plans has perhaps surprised the U.S. president, who, in order to meet Putin, specifically moved the G-8 meeting from Chicago to Camp David. In fact, in the Illinois city, there’s a NATO summit being held that is focusing on Afghanistan, but which will also discuss the missile defense system — a subject that Moscow is said to find sensitive.

Moving the meeting was a courtesy, according to U.S. diplomats, to avoid the parallel between the two summits and a potentially uncomfortable situation for the Russian president — who, however, has decided to settle things once and for all and send Medvedev. So much for U.S. courtesy.