President Obama will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin at next week's gathering of world leaders in St. Petersburg, the White House says, though it's unclear whether it will be an exchange beyond pleasantries.
The G20 summit is being held in St. Petersburg, and with Russia is the host nation, Obama "will certainly meet with Putin," spokesman Jay Carney said. But, he added, the White House earlier this month decided against holding a bilateral summit in Moscow with Putin.
Carney said he couldn't say whether the encounter in St. Petersburg will be a formal meeting, known as a "bilateral."
"I just don't have a schedule of what our meetings look like at the G20," Carney said. "I mean, we're going to St. Petersburg for the G20.
Obama scrapped a pre-G20 meeting in Moscow with Putin to register U.S. displeasure over the country's embrace of intelligence leaker, Edward Snowden, among other disagreements. He's suggested it's time for the US to take a pause and reconsider its relationship with the country.
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