Some of the old stereotypes about the cold war contest between the United States and russia and ive encouraged mr. Putin to think forward as opposed to backwards on those issues, with mixed success. That was president obama yesterday during a press conference at the white house, capping off a week where the news has been all about u. S. russian relations. On wednesday, the president announced that he would skip a planned oneonone meeting with russian president Vladimir Putin. That was scheduled for next month. But the white house said that there has not been enough progress on major issues like nuclear arms and human rights to make a president ial meeting worthwhile. They also cited russias decision to give asylum to u. S. Leaker, Edward Snowden. The meeting was supposed to take place in moscow before the g8 economic summit in st. Petersburg. And the president says hell still attend the summit, rebuffing calls by Lindsey Graham to boycott the summit entirely, and also the 2014 olympics
Miriam Elder is the Edward R. Murrow press fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. She is a reporter and editor with particular expertise in Russia, U.S. foreign policy, and gender issues. Her wo…