Russia Hopes Putin, Obama Will Meet at Upcoming Summit – Kremlin

(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, October 3, 2013) ­ Russia is hopeful that Presidents Vladimir Putin and Barack Obama will meet on the sidelines of an Asia Pacific regional summit in Indonesia on October 7, a Kremlin official said Thursday.

Presidential aide Yury Ushakov said that the planned meeting during the upcoming APEC summit was Russia’s initiative, that it was “immediately taken up by the American side” and that “we think this meeting will go ahead.”

There has not yet been any confirmation from the American side.

US President Barack Obama cancelled a planned one-on-one with Putin at September’s G20 Summit in St. Petersburg after Russia granted US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden asylum in August. This came at a time when Russia-US relations were particularly strained over a number of issues including potential intervention in the Syrian civil war.

However, the two leaders met briefly on the sidelines of the G20 summit. Speaking Thursday, Ushakov said they had “dynamic and very useful contact.” At the time, Putin said “we agreed to disagree, but there is a dialogue.”