Edward Snowden was granted a 1-year asylum from Russian President, Validimir Putin. Now, President Obama has decided that he’s going to cancel his September meeting with Putin. Hit the jump for details.
Don’t forget to hit up the gallery! The faces, Mr. President!
“There is not enough recent progress in our bilateral agenda with Russia to hold a U.S.-Russia Summit in early September,” said White House Press Secretary Jay Carney. Tensions have arose between the two leaders with the the Russians granting NSA leaker, Snowden a temporary stay. A relationship that was already on rocky grounds has made things a little more shaky. For that, Obama says he still plans to attend the, Group of 20 economic summit in St. Petersburg, Russia, but he has no intention to talk one-on-one with Putin.
“We’ll still work with Russia on issues where we can find common ground, but it was the unanimous view of the president and his national security team that a summit did not make sense in the current environment,” says White House deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes.
The government is some shady business, but I guess when it comes to the U.S. and other countries, better safe than sorry. My question: Why do you think that Russia granted Snowden’s asylum? Was it for the, “rights” that they think a citizen deserves, or was it to stir up the pot? Let us know in the comments.
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