U.S. President Barack Obama signaled through his press secretary Jay Carney that he would be discussing the recent cancellation by the United States of Obama’s Moscow summit meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Obama’s press conference, meant to clear the air on U.S.-Russian relations and U.S. intelligence mass surveillance of private communications, left more questions than answers. Obama’s answers to press questions were all over the map, confusing, and at times, deceptive . . .
Obama’s decision to nix the Moscow meeting prior to attending the G20 Summit in St. Petersburg was said to be a result of Russia’s decision to grant temporary political asylum to National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden. However, there are other fractious issues between Washington and Moscow that prompted Obama to abruptly cancel the meeting with Putin.
America’s neoconservative war hawks in Congress, including Republican Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee and Democratic Representative Eliot Engel of New York, used the summit cancellation to push for renewed development on the U.S. missile “defense” shield that Obama put on the back burner after his re-election. War hawks are now demanding that Obama ignore Russian anxieties over the U.S. ballistic missile shield and begin deployment along Russia’s western borders.
Obama’s press conference came amid talks in Washington between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Secretary of State John Kerry and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, so any abrupt change on the U.S. missile shield was not likely as long as the top Russian foreign and defense policy chiefs were talking to their American counterparts.
Obama’s mid-afternoon press conference was held simultaneous to Lavrov’s press conference at the Russian embassy. Reports on the so-called 2+2 meetings between Kerry, Lavrov, Hagel, and Shoigu were billed as constructive even though Obama was planning to engage in childish personal attacks on the Russian president. Obama’s attacks on Putin began a few days earlier when Obama appeared on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno show on NBC. Obama reminded Leno’s viewers that Putin was a former KGB agent. Leno is a failed “B movie” actor and stand-up comedian who is leaving as host of the nighttime program early next year. Obama also used his appearance on the Tonight Show to deny that America was spying on anyone.
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