President Barack Obama canceled his trip to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow next month after Russia granted National Security leaker Edward Snowden asylum, the White House said Wednesday.
The decision was not solely based on Snowden. The United States has grown frustration with Russia on other issues, including missile defense and arms control, trade and commercial relations and human rights.
"Following a careful review begun in July, we have reached the conclusion that there is not enough recent progress in our bilateral agenda with Russia to hold a U.S.-Russia Summit in early September," according to a statement released by White House press secretary Jay Carney.
Carney said the United States values cooperation on a variety of issues between the two nations, including the New START Treaty, and cooperation on Afghanistan, Iran and North Korea.
Obama will attend the Group of 20 economic summit in St. Petersburg, but will no longer meet with Putin in Moscow as he had planned in early September. Instead, he will travel to Sweden.
Obama and Putin last met in June on the sidelines of the Group of 8 summit in Northern Ireland. The United States has informed Russia that "it would be more constructive to postpone the summit until we have more results from our shared agenda."
Sen. Charles Schumer, who urged Obama to cancel the meeting with Putin, said Obama made the right decision.
"President Putin is acting like a school-yard bully and doesn’t deserve the respect a bilateral summit would have accorded him," he said.
The G-20 summit is scheduled to take place in St. Petersburg Sept. 5-6. Obama will make his first visit to Sweden before the summit.Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel and Secretary of State John Kerry will meet with their Russian counterparts Friday in Washington to discuss the relationship.
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