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White House to Announce That Obama and Putin Will Meet White House Says Obama and Putin Will Meet Next Week
(about 3 hours later)
WASHINGTON — The White House plans to announce on Thursday that President Obama will meet next week with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, ending a long period in which the American leader refused to meet with his counterpart from the Kremlin, a senior administration official said. WASHINGTON — The White House announced on Thursday that President Obama will meet next week with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, ending a long period in which the American leader refused to meet with his counterpart from the Kremlin.
“We can confirm that the two presidents will meet in the context of the U.N. General Assembly at the request of President Putin,” the official said, insisting on anonymity before the official statement. Mr. Putin had requested the meeting, said Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary, and considering the significant issues involving Ukraine and Syria, “it makes sense for President Obama to sit down with his counterpart and see if he can get greater clarity about Russia’s intentions inside of Ukraine.”
“Given the situations in Ukraine and Syria, despite our profound differences with Moscow, the president believes that it would be irresponsible not to test whether we can make progress through high-level engagement with the Russians,” the official added. With Russia sending more military forces to Syria to prop up the autocratic government of President Bashar al-Assad in the country’s four-year civil war, Mr. Earnest said a meeting between American and Russian leaders might help determine “whether or not they’re willing to at least consider President Obama’s advice when it comes to reinforcing their military support for the Assad regime.”
The official said the “core message” of the meeting would be Mr. Obama’s insistence that Russia live up to the terms of the cease-fire in Ukraine negotiated in Minsk, the capital of neighboring Belarus. The meeting also comes at a time when Russia has sent military forces to Syria to bolster the government of President Bashar al-Assad, alarming American officials. Mr. Obama and Mr. Putin will sit down in New York at the annual session of the United Nations General Assembly. Administration officials had said privately on Wednesday that the president had decided to agree to a meeting with Mr. Putin if it could be arranged, but then said that it had not been finalized.
Other administration officials said on Wednesday that the president had decided to agree to a meeting with Mr. Putin if it could be arranged, but said then that it had not been finalized. The coming announcement later Thursday ends a debate inside the administration about whether such a meeting might inadvertently serve to embolden Mr. Putin. The announcement ended a debate inside the administration about whether such a meeting might inadvertently serve to embolden Mr. Putin. In the end, officials indicated that Mr. Obama decided to take that risk in hopes of using the opportunity to press the Russian leader on Ukraine and Syria.
In the end, officials indicated that Mr. Obama decided to take that risk in hopes of using the opportunity to press the Russian leader on Ukraine and Syria. White House officials said the core message of the meeting will be Mr. Obama’s insistence that Russia live up to the terms of the cease-fire in Ukraine negotiated in Minsk, the capital of neighboring Belarus. Citing Russia’s economic problems and attributing them to American and European sanctions levied over its intervention in Ukraine, Mr. Earnest said the meeting in New York would not undermine the international community’s isolation of Moscow.
“That’s not going to change because of one in-person conversation,” Mr. Earnest said.
Mr. Obama canceled a summit meeting with Mr. Putin in 2013 after Russia gave shelter to Edward J. Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who leaked documents. After Russia annexed Crimea and supported a pro-Russian separatist uprising in eastern Ukraine last year, Mr. Obama limited his contacts even further.
The two have generally just had passing encounters over the last year. They talked in person for a short time at a D-Day anniversary event in France in June 2014, for instance, and also had brief words on the sidelines of two international economic summit meetings in November in China and Australia.
They last talked by telephone in July after Russia joined the United States, China and three European powers in negotiating a nuclear agreement with Iran. But through it all, Secretary of State John Kerry has remained in regular contact with his Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov, and American officials credited the Russians with playing a mostly helpful role during the Iran talks.