Russian President Vladimir Putin has postponed accepting the invitation to the G8 summit at Camp David, planned to be held in Chicago in May, a day prior to a NATO summit, Gazeta.ru reports.
Putin was invited to the G8 summit in Chicago and the Russia-NATO summit in 2011. But the Russian president expressed willingness to attend the NATO summit only if there would be progress in negotiations on missile defence. No agreements are expected to be reached by May.
Chicago Mayor Rahm Imanuel, head of Barack Obama’s administration since the 1st of October 2010, and the main lobbyist for hosting the summit, said that the postponement was made a few hours before the announcement.
The summit in Chicago was planned for May 18-19, the NATO summit for May 20-21.
Putin is demonstrating that he does not want to start new tensions with the West. Obama will not need to respond to criticisms about any failed “reboot” of relations.
The Russian president’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov has not commented on the information.
