Smackdown

A smackdown before a sitdown

Obama and Putin are trash-talking in advance of their first meeting in a year. 

By Michael Crowley

Barack Obama’s high-stakes meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin is already off to a tense start. And the two men haven’t even sat down together yet.

When the two leaders do convene Monday afternoon at the United Nations, they’ll be at odds over why they’re meeting, what to discuss — and even what counts as good posture.

Expectations for a substantive breakthrough are low, leaving the two leaders jockeying for public relations advantage amid the world leaders gathered for the U.N.’s annual gathering in New York.

White House aides are sure to aggressively spin Obama’s performance after what could be a machismo-infused sitdown with a Russian leader whose “schtick,” Obama once said, is to play "the tough guy.”

On that note, White House press secretary Josh Earnest noted last week that Putin often slouches in his chair during meetings with world leaders, including Obama, showing “less-than-perfect posture and unbuttoned jacket, and knees spread far apart, to convey a particular image.” That led one Russia think-tank expert to marvel that the White House had, in effect, accused Putin of “manspreading.”

Meanwhile, Washington and Moscow are presenting two very different narratives about the one-on-one meeting, the first between the two leaders since last fall.

The White House says Putin requested the sit-down. The Kremlin insists it was Obama’s idea.

The White House says that Russia’s intervention in Ukraine will be “the top item” on Obama’s agenda.

Not so, a Putin spokesman retorted. “Naturally, Syria is going to be topping the agenda,” he said. The men might discuss Ukraine, he added, “if there is enough time.”

Those superficial disputes only reflect the deep differences between Obama and Putin on fundamental issues that have strained the U.S.-Russia relationship nearly to a breaking point in recent years.

Over the past month, Russia has unexpectedly built up a military presence in Syria in an apparent effort to shore up the embattled Syrian leader, Bashar al-Assad. The longtime Russian ally’s regime forces have recently lost ground to Islamist rebel groups, including the Islamic State, and may be at risk of toppling.

Obama officials call the Russian buildup — which includes tanks, troops and dozens of fighter jets — a dangerous escalation that could inflame and extend Syria’s sectarian civil war. Obama wants to end the Syrian conflict through a multi-nation peace process that forces Assad’s exit. Putin says the goal is simply to crush the terrorists and thinks Assad can stay.

At a minimum, Obama officials want a clearer sense of Putin’s exact military plans for Syria, something they still lack and hope the president will hear from Putin tomorrow.

“I think the critical thing is that all of the efforts need to be coordinated,” Secretary of State John Kerry said after meeting in New York with Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, on Sunday. “This is not yet coordinated.”

Further poisoning the well, in an interview with CBS’s Charlie Rose on Sunday, Putin described American policy toward Syria as inept, illegal and unlikely to end the Syrian conflict.

The Russian president boasts about his country’s support for Assad, whom Putin says is leading a valiant battle against Islamic radicals. “Assad’s army is fighting against terrorist organizations,” Putin told Rose. American support for rebel fighters, he added, has been both ineffectual and a violation of international law.

The White House will also closely watch the Russian’s remarks when he speaks to the General Assembly on Monday. In the speech, Putin is expected to call for unified global action against radical Islamist groups, with Russia implicitly taking a lead role.

Setting the stage for that message, Iraq announced Sunday that it had signed a security agreement with Russia, Iran and Syria to share information about the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL. Though the agreement has limited practical meaning, it illustrates an apparent Russian effort to assert its role in the Middle East.

Obama officials say Putin may be elevating his role in Syria as a way of changing the subject from Ukraine, the source of his country’s ostracism and punishment by U.S. and European financial sanctions.

Despite agreeing to talk with Putin in New York, Obama still believes Russia should be censured and isolated for its continued military support of separatists in eastern Ukraine.

Obama may also try to subtly remind Putin that, however tough his schtick might be, the U.S. remains the superior world power.

Earnest noted last week that Putin calls Russia “the chief competitor to the United States around the world.” He pointed out that Obama likes to describe Russia as “a regional power” that is “seeking to hold on to the influence that they may be losing in places like the Middle East.”

“And that certainly is different than the kind of influence that the United States wields all around the globe,” Earnest said.

Not that, when it comes to the Obama-Putin relationship, anyone is keeping score.