“Following a careful review begun in July, we have reached the conclusion that there is not enough recent progress in our bilateral agenda with Russia to hold a U.S.-Russia Summit in early September,” White House press secretary Jay Carney said in a statement.
Carney cited a “lack of progress” with Russia over the past 12 months on a broad range of issues including missile defense and arms control, trade and commercial relations, global security and human rights and civil society issues. Carney added that Russia’s “disappointing decision” last week to grant Snowden temporary asylum, allowing him to live and work in Russia for up to a year, was also a factor.
“We have informed the Russian Government that we believe it would be more constructive to postpone the summit until we have more results from our shared agenda,” Carney said.
On Friday, Secretary of State John F. Kerry and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel will meet with their Russian counterparts in Washington to discuss how to make progress, Carney said.
Instead of visiting Moscow ahead of the G-20 summit, Obama will travel to Stockholm on Sept. 4.
“Sweden is a close friend and partner to the United States,” Carney said in a statement. “Sweden plays a key leadership role on the international stage, including in opening new trade and investment opportunities through the U.S.-EU Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, advancing clean technologies, and promoting environmental sustainability.”
The cancellation of the Obama-Putin meeting appeared unlikely to provoke an outsize reaction in Russia. Although Putin clearly wanted the prestige of an at-home summit with his U.S. counterpart, he was apparently unwilling to offer much in exchange for it.
Russia has shown no signs of changing its stance on Syria, missile defense or other issues important to the United States.
Putin’s foreign affairs adviser told reporters that the Kremlin was disappointed with the decision and blamed it on the Snowden affair, which he said was not Russia’s fault.
“It is clear that this decision is related to a situation with the former employee of the U.S. special services, Snowden, which we did not create,” Yuri Ushakov said.
He said the invitation to Obama remained open and criticized the United States for lack of interest in developing good relations.
“This problem testifies to the remaining unpreparedness of the United States to build an equal relationship,” he said, adding, “Russia is ready to continue working with its U.S. partners on all key items on the bilateral and multilateral agendas.”
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