Vladimir Putin Pulls Out Of G8 Summit

Vladimir Putin recently took over the office of the Presidency in Russian for a second time (third term) and one of his first orders of business has been to cancel his upcoming trip to Camp David for the G8 summit.

The meeting would have been the first between President Obama and Putin while Vladimir was once again President of Russia. Putin had recently served as Prime Minister of the country before decided to run for President for a third term.

Instead Vladimir Putin will send former President and now Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev in his place.

The announcement according to Putin was needed as he tries to “finalize cabinet appointments in the new government”, however anyone who has followed the Russian President’s speeches knows that he is very critical of President Obama which may have played a role in his decision.

President Obama and Russian President Putin are now expected to hold a private meeting next month in Mexico during the G20 conference.

The G8 Summit was originally slated to take place in Chicago, however several administration and European officials claim that President Obama moved the summit to Camp David in order to accommodate Vladimir Putin, a claim the Obama administration denies. Instead Obama’s people say the President chose Camp David because be believed it would be a “more relaxed atmosphere to facilitate candid discussion among world leaders.”

It could be possible that Putin didn’t want his first Presidential meet with Barack Obama to take place with the home court advantage given to Obama, whatever the case may be the two men will now have to wait another month to meet as the respective Presidents of their countries.