Deadlock Between President Obama and Vladimir Putin: Here Are All the Reasons

President Barack Obama canceled the meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin which was scheduled for the beginning of this September. President Obama will still attend a G-20 summit in St. Petersburg on September 5 and 6; but before then, instead of stopping in Moscow to meet with Putin, he will go to Sweden.

According to what the White House announced at the beginning of August, not enough recent progress has been made in their bilateral agenda with Russia to hold a U.S.-Russia Summit.

The most contentious points between Washington and Moscow are on issues such as missile defense and arms control, trade and commercial relations, global security issues and human rights and civil society.

Among these, although it was not explicitly mentioned in the announcement document, the war in Syria stands out.

The U.S. and Russia have taken opposing positions, supporting two different groups in the conflict; the former the Syrian rebels — not affiliated with Al-Qaida — and the latter backing Bashar al-Assad’s regime. Although there have been attempts to find common ground on bringing the hostilities to an end, there is still a long way to go.

One of the most pressing issues of the G-20 summit will surely be how to deal with the civil war in Syria — especially after President Obama’s decision to seek congressional approval for any military attack upon Assad’s regime. A possible US attack would not aim to bring about a change in the regime, but would be a punishment for the alleged use of chemical weapons by the loyalists.

President Putin has expressed doubts about Assad being responsible for the chemical weapons attacks in a time when the army is trying to regain lost ground against the Syrian rebels. The Russian leader warned President Obama not to attack Syria without U.N. approval. But Vladimir Putin does not exclude the possibility, like he has in the past, of supporting a U.N. resolution on punitive military strikes if it is proved that Damascus used poison gas on its own people.

Crucial in the cancellation of the meeting with Putin is the case of [Edward] Snowden, a U.S. intelligence analyst to whom temporary asylum in Russia has been granted. Washington has been asking for months now for the extradition of the former National Security Agency contractor who was accused of theft of government property and charged with two crimes of espionage. The two countries do not have an agreement on mutual extradition of criminals.

The Kremlin has expressed “disappointment” with Obama’s decision. The U.S. has shown it is not ready to build relations on an equal footing with Russia.

For all the reasons listed above, the current tension between Washington and Moscow is regarded as containing some of the most relevant issues for a bilateral meeting.