White House Divided On Having Talks With Russian President Putin On Syrian Crisis

President Barack Obama talks with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin at his dacha outside Moscow, Russia, July 7, 2009 (White House/Pete Souza)

New York Times: Obama Weighing Talks With Putin on Syrian Crisis

WASHINGTON — For more than a year, President Obama has resisted meeting one on one with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and only reluctantly taken a phone call, freezing out the Kremlin leader over his intervention in Ukraine in their own personal cold war.

But this month, the two leaders will be in the same city at the same time amid rising tension in Syria, and the White House is divided by a debate over whether they should meet to try to work out their differences before the tumult in the Middle East escalates even further.

The recent deployment of Russian weapons and equipment to Syria has brought to a head a conflict that has dominated the Obama administration since Mr. Putin’s return to the presidency, the choice between engaging with Russia and trying to isolate it. If Ukraine and Syria are the world’s two most significant conflict zones, then some officials argue that the solutions to both problems ultimately go through Moscow, making it necessary to talk. Others, however, worry that agreeing to meet would only play into Mr. Putin’s hands and reward an international bully.

WNU Editor: I do not know what will be accomplished with such a meeting. U.S. - Russian relations are at the lowest that I have seen since the end of the Cold War, and I know that the Kremlin is just biding its time for the end of President Obama's term. That is why I find this White House leak to the New York Times interesting .... the White House wants to project the image that they have influence over Russia .... but realistically .... the only thing that the Russians are interested in is to set up a means to have direct Russian military-to-U.S. military communications so that U.S. and Russian fighters do not end up firing (accidentally) at each other over Syria. My prediction .... Putin and Obama will meet .... and in the next few weeks we will start to hear reports that the U.S. and Russia have set up such a network to avoid such possible jet fighter confrontations over Syria.

Update: That did not take too long .... Kerry says Russia proposed U.S.-Russia military talks on Syria (Reuters).