Frosty

Obama and Putin: That was awkward

Frosty exchanges mark their first formal sitdown in more than two years.

By Michael Crowley

An awkward toast, sideways glances, a stiff handshake.

Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin aren't just geostrategic rivals. They are two guys who simply don't like each other.

That much seemed clear after Monday's action at the United Nations in New York, where Obama and Putin sat uncomfortably together at a lunch, then met privately for a 90-minute session which appeared to yield no breakthroughs on the major differences between them.

Skipping any pretense of bonhomie, a senior administration official said the men had a "business-like back and forth," dividing their time between Ukraine and Syria. Putin echoed that language, calling the encounter "businesslike and frank."

Afterward Putin, couldn't resist needling his counterpart, reiterating the Kremlin's claim that it was Obama who sought the meeting — a matter of political pride that the White House strongly disputes.

To some, Putin managed to steal the show at the kickoff of a U.N. confab that could have focused on his aggression in Ukraine, but instead largely revolved around Russia's plans for Syria. Attendees were also buzzing about Putin's smooth interview on CBS' "60 Minutes" the night before.

"Putin has had a great couple of days in terms of public relations," said Michael McFaul, Obama's first ambassador to Moscow. "Everybody wanted to know what Putin was going to say today, and we're all talking about Syria."

The White House was tight-lipped about atmospherics in the U.N. Security Council's consultations chamber, where the men met. But there was no mistaking the chilly vibe as the two posed for a dutiful, get-it-over-with handshake beforehand. Or when they sat one seat apart at a U.N. luncheon, where Obama wore a stony face and threw sidelong glances at his Russian counterpart as they clinked glasses during a toast.

In speeches earlier on Monday, the two had blamed one another for the carnage in Syria and laid out diverging visions for global security. Obama said Russia's aggression in Ukraine had flaunted international law and that its support for dictator Bashar Assad was prolonging the Syrian civil war. Putin said the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq had given rise to the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, and said the world should assist Assad in the fight against ISIS.

Obama has said he doesn't view his relationship with Putin in personal terms. But the reality has become increasibly undeniable. Perhaps only Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seems to get deeper under the skin of a president not known for faking admiration for people he doesn't respect.

And perhaps not since Nikita Khrushchev and John F. Kennedy have a Russian and American leader held such a low opinion of one another. "They are different people," McFaul said. "The president is analytic. Putin is emotional."

Indeed, Obama's recent experience with Putin reminds some Russia watchers of JFK, who in June 1961 met in Vienna with Khrushchev despite the warnings of advisers that their policy differences were too great and that the Soviet premier would exploit the event for propaganda purposes.

Those warnings were echoed at the White House this summer by aides who doubted the wisdom of having Obama sit down with Putin for their first formal one-on-one meeting since mid-2013, in part because Putin would use it to enhance his global stature after a period of diplomatic isolation over Ukraine.

Kennedy's advisers were proven right. The meeting was a fiasco, with Khrushchev bullying and intimidating the younger Kennedy, whom he later described as "too intelligent and too weak." Kennedy later admitted to a reporter that the meeting had been the “roughest thing in my life.” “He just beat the hell out of me. I’ve got a terrible problem if he thinks I’m inexperienced and have no guts,” Kennedy said.

Obama has never confessed to such insecurities about Putin. And his White House has at times seemed to taunt the Russian leader, gloating over his wheezing economy and referring to his country as a mere "regional power," despite its massive nuclear arsenal.

But just as Khruschev tested Kennedy by sending nuclear missiles to Cuba, Putin has also tested Obama, albeit on a more modest scale, with his assault on eastern Ukraine last year and his surprise military buildup in Syria in recent weeks.

Not that Obama is the first U.S. president to see his relationship with Putin sour. After at first saying he'd gotten a positive sense of Putin's "soul," George W. Bush fumed over his aggression toward the Republic of Georgia, and ended his presidency by telling the Russian: "You're cold-blooded."

The Obama-Putin relationship has been on a steep downward slope since their last bilateral meeting, in June 2013. (They met in person informally last November and occasionally speak by phone, most recently in mid-July.)

Since then, Putin's Russia has granted asylum to the National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden; violated a Cold War-era missile treaty with the U.S.; annexed Crimea and fomented rebellion in eastern Ukraine; hacked into Pentagon servers; and increased its support for Assad, whom Obama says must go.

Obama's decision to see Putin followed an internal administration debate, which weighed the cost of granting Putin the legitimacy of a personal meeting with Obama. Ultimately, U.S. officials decided the cost was low when compared with the benefit of learning more about Putin's uncertain intentions in Syria and pressuring the Russian leader not to allow pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine to sabotage local elections scheduled there next month.

In his remarks afterward, Putin said he welcomed the opportunity to talk business with Obama in a relatively informal setting. "There is no need to go through all the protocol and ceremonies," he said, "You just discuss the issues that you are interested in very specifically."

Despite all the attention focused on body language and theatrics, the administration official said, "this was not a situation where either one of them was seeking to score points in a meeting. I think there was a shared desire to figure out a way in which we can address the situation in Syria.”

But neither side provided any indication they succeeded.