WOW, Well I guess Putin basically decided to tell Obama "F U". He called Obama today and said he is not coming to the G-8 meeting that has been planned since last year in the U.S. at Camp David (was going to be Chicago originally) this month (May 18th-19th).
To me, this is a blatant FU to Obama. Lets remember that Obama was caught in an opened mic telling Medvedev that he would have more lee way when he was re-elected and to let Putin know that.
So what ever it is that Obama is suppose to be doing for Putin and not having the flexibility to do so until after the election has obviously pissed off Putin.
Things sure are interesting in the political world right now. It seems that there is splintering all over in Europe and now Russia is going to ignore Obama.
From the article linked:
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin is skipping a planned visit to the United States this month for an economic summit and a much-anticipated meeting with President Barack Obama, the White House announced Wednesday.
Neither the White House nor the Kremlin had discussed the change in plans until Wednesday, but a White House official said National Security Adviser Tom Donilon was informed of it when he visited Putin and other Russian officials in Moscow last week.
There was no immediate confirmation of the change in plans from the Kremlin.
Putin took power this week, returning after six years to a post he had previously held for two terms. He made sharp criticism of the United States a central theme in his election, but it is not clear whether he will pull back from cooperation with the United States in several areas begun by former President Dmitry Medvedev.
Update - 3:02 PM 5/10/12 - Bloomberg has an article about it now. Says Putin snubbed Obama and did not want to be seen fraternizing with him.
