MOSCOW, September 12 (Itar-Tass) - Barack Obama put off the summit meeting with Vladimir Putin in Moscow, initially scheduled for September 3-4, because some of the necessary things had not been finished, US Ambassador in Moscow Michael McFaul told the Dozhd TV channel.
“Obama himself decided that some things were not ready,” McFaul said. “He is a man of practical deeds and diplomatic get-togethers are not in his habit.”
“An exact date was fixed and he gave commands telling us we were to finish a number of things so that the summit could take place but we didn’t manage to do it and that’s why Obama told us, when you finish everything that’s necessary then the summit will take place,” McFaul said.
September 6, Putin and Obama had a conversation of about twenty minutes on the sidelines of a G20 summit conference in Strelna near St. Petersburg. They agreed to continue contacts via the Russian Foreign Ministry and the U.S. Department of State on a number of problems related to Syria.
“The meeting took about twenty minutes and the two leaders spent them sitting in armchairs rather than standing on their feet,” Putin’s aide Yuri Ushakov told Itar-Tass after its completion.
He indicated that the cancelation of the summit in Moscow was not discussed.
“They mostly looked at the Syrian crisis,” he said.