The awkward moment when Barack Obam

The awkward moment when Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin met at the UN General Assembly.
Rarely have two world leaders been so visibly uncomfortable in one another's presence, but that doesn't mean Vladimir Putin and Barack Obama have nothing to talk about
Those are the diplomatic euphemisms Vladimir Putin used to describe his meeting with Barack Obama on Monday night, and it says a lot about the dire state of US-Russian relations that they sounded positive.
But it also says a lot about the awkward personal dynamic between Mr Putin and Mr Obama. For no matter what their spin doctors say, there can rarely have been two world leaders so obviously physically uncomfortable in one another’s presence.
It is not even like the geopolitical relationship between their two countries, a previously perfectly workable if strained partnership until it fell apart with the Ukraine crisis. To put it diplomatically, Mr Obama and Mr Putin have just never quite "gelled".
When they first met at Mr Putin’s dacha in 2009, Mr Putin - then prime minister - picked at the biscuits while Mr Obama tried to crack jokes. Then he disinterestedly sipped tea while Mr Obama turned to great power relations. Worst of all he slouched, almost, but not entirely, in the manner he reserves for regional officials with which he is displeased. The video of their breakfast meeting is excruciating.
That's not to say there have never been constructive smiles, business like handshakes, and so on. They are both professionals, after all. It's just that all the professional courtesy in the world cannot make them look like they enjoy one another's company.
At the 2013 G8 summit at Lough Erne in Northern Ireland, they reportedly clashed over who got to use the resort’s gym. Mr Putin, being Mr Putin, decided he would swim in the iron-cold lough instead. A photograph of the two side-by-side at the event, utterly sullen, prompted the New Yorker to write a satirical article headlined “Obama, Putin, agree never to speak to each other again.”
After that, the pair avoided one another. Until Monday, they had not had a proper bilateral meeting for two years.
The interesting thing is that somewhere along the way, Mr Obama seems to have stopped caring too.
Perhaps someone, somewhere captured the moment. Maybe during a bilateral meeting, Mr Obama heaved a huge, silent shrug, and slouched back in his chair like Mr Putin, overwhelmed with indifference. Maybe during one of their telephone conversations about Ukraine he laid the receiver on the Oval office desk, asked John Kerry to shout if anything interesting came out of it, and went for a smoke.
Either way, by 2014, he had abandoned niceties enough to shrug off Russia as a mere "regional power" capable of threatening its neighbours "not out of strength but out of weakness". It was, in a way, the kind of off-hand put down Mr Putin himself is a master of.
But Mr Obama’s new found stern reserve doesn’t seem to have upset Mr Putin. If anything, he seems much more comfortable with it. Despite the vicious mutual recriminations in their rival address to the General Assembly on Monday, Mr Putin's scowl had gone, replaced by mercurial hints of Mona Lisa’s smirk.
As they clinked glasses at Monday’s UN lunch, Mr Obama met the Russia leader’s gaze with an impassive, stony frown. Mr Putin smiled (was it a smile?) back with gnomish self-satisfaction.
And perhaps that is the basis for their constructive, business-like, and very frank relationship: I don’t like you and you don’t like me. Let’s get this thing over with.
Underlying it, of course, are what Russians would call “objective” reasons for understanding.
As the two leaders’ mutually bitterly critical speeches to the General Assembly made clear, Russia and the West have completely different concepts of what is happening in Ukraine, and how the war there started.
But amongst the barbs, both came to the same conclusion: the Minsk peace deal is the way forward. For whatever reason, the war appears to be losing momentum. Maybe, just maybe, there is a path to peace.
Then there is Syria, where an uncharitable reading would say the two men are, each, in their own way, as disingenuous as the other.
As my colleague Ruth Sherlock points out, Mr Obama’s rhetoric and actions on Syria parted ways long ago. The United States has made no real effort to oust Bashar al-Assad, and is not going to, so the argument with Mr Putin about the Syrian leader’s future is largely for the cameras.
Similarly, while Mr Putin has called for a grand coalition against Isil, boldly deployed troops to Syria, and positioned Russia as the nation that will clear up the mess America made, he has so far shown very little appetite to do anything whatsoever of substance - other than just enough to keep Mr Assad in power in what is left of the Syrian state.
When a Russian reporter asked him on Monday night exactly Russia’s role might be in the grand coalition, he fudged.
We might, maybe, perhaps, join the air campaign against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil), he said. We’ll provide training and equipment to the side we favour (Mr Assad’s government). But there’s no way in sweet hell, he signalled to the world and the Russian public, that we’re getting embroiled in a Middle Eastern ground war.
Sensible enough, perhaps (if you believe Mr Putin’s statements about the whereabouts and activities of his armed forces). But also, if you hadn’t noticed, almost the exact position of Mr Obama’s government (except the Americans, unlike the Russians so far, are actually doing the bombing part).
So maybe there is a basis for understanding. Undisguised mutual dislike, frank disagreement on Ukraine, and a business-like recognition that it is much safer to argue about Syria than do anything about it.
And maybe Mr Putin is not wrong. After all, a frank discussion of interests and demands is a decent starting point for a deal, even on a problem as intractable as Syria. Perhaps Monday's meeting was, in some sense, constructive after all.

Результаты (русский) 1:

Неудобный момент, когда Barack Obama и Vladimir Путин встретился на Генеральной Ассамблее ООН.Редко два мировых лидеров были настолько явно неудобно в присутствии друг друга, но это не значит, что Путин Vladimir и Barack Obama нечего говорить оЭти дипломатические эвфемизмами, которую Путин Vladimir используется для описания его встречи с Barack Obama в понедельник вечером, и он говорит много о тяжелое состояние Американо-российских отношений, что они звучали положительный.Но это также многое говорит о неловкое личных динамических между Путиным и г-н Obama. Для независимо от того, что говорят их спин врачей, может редко произошли две мировые лидеры так очевидно физически неудобно в присутствии друг друга.Это не даже как геополитических отношений между их двумя странами, ранее вполне работоспособным, если напряженные партнерство до тех пор, пока она распалась с кризиса в Украине. Говоря дипломатическим языком, г-н Obama и Путин довольно просто никогда не «загущенное».Когда они впервые встретились на даче Путина в 2009 году, Путин - то премьер-министр - выбрал на печенье в то время как г-н Obama пытался шутить. Затем он бескорыстно пили чай, хотя г-н Obama обратился к великой державы отношений. Хуже всего, что он slouched, почти, но не полностью в порядке, он резервирует для региональных должностных лиц, с которыми он не доволен. Видео встречи их завтрак мучительна.That's not to say there have never been constructive smiles, business like handshakes, and so on. They are both professionals, after all. It's just that all the professional courtesy in the world cannot make them look like they enjoy one another's company.At the 2013 G8 summit at Lough Erne in Northern Ireland, they reportedly clashed over who got to use the resort’s gym. Mr Putin, being Mr Putin, decided he would swim in the iron-cold lough instead. A photograph of the two side-by-side at the event, utterly sullen, prompted the New Yorker to write a satirical article headlined “Obama, Putin, agree never to speak to each other again.”After that, the pair avoided one another. Until Monday, they had not had a proper bilateral meeting for two years.The interesting thing is that somewhere along the way, Mr Obama seems to have stopped caring too.Perhaps someone, somewhere captured the moment. Maybe during a bilateral meeting, Mr Obama heaved a huge, silent shrug, and slouched back in his chair like Mr Putin, overwhelmed with indifference. Maybe during one of their telephone conversations about Ukraine he laid the receiver on the Oval office desk, asked John Kerry to shout if anything interesting came out of it, and went for a smoke.Either way, by 2014, he had abandoned niceties enough to shrug off Russia as a mere "regional power" capable of threatening its neighbours "not out of strength but out of weakness". It was, in a way, the kind of off-hand put down Mr Putin himself is a master of.But Mr Obama’s new found stern reserve doesn’t seem to have upset Mr Putin. If anything, he seems much more comfortable with it. Despite the vicious mutual recriminations in their rival address to the General Assembly on Monday, Mr Putin's scowl had gone, replaced by mercurial hints of Mona Lisa’s smirk.As they clinked glasses at Monday’s UN lunch, Mr Obama met the Russia leader’s gaze with an impassive, stony frown. Mr Putin smiled (was it a smile?) back with gnomish self-satisfaction.And perhaps that is the basis for their constructive, business-like, and very frank relationship: I don’t like you and you don’t like me. Let’s get this thing over with.Underlying it, of course, are what Russians would call “objective” reasons for understanding.As the two leaders’ mutually bitterly critical speeches to the General Assembly made clear, Russia and the West have completely different concepts of what is happening in Ukraine, and how the war there started.But amongst the barbs, both came to the same conclusion: the Minsk peace deal is the way forward. For whatever reason, the war appears to be losing momentum. Maybe, just maybe, there is a path to peace.Then there is Syria, where an uncharitable reading would say the two men are, each, in their own way, as disingenuous as the other.As my colleague Ruth Sherlock points out, Mr Obama’s rhetoric and actions on Syria parted ways long ago. The United States has made no real effort to oust Bashar al-Assad, and is not going to, so the argument with Mr Putin about the Syrian leader’s future is largely for the cameras.Similarly, while Mr Putin has called for a grand coalition against Isil, boldly deployed troops to Syria, and positioned Russia as the nation that will clear up the mess America made, he has so far shown very little appetite to do anything whatsoever of substance - other than just enough to keep Mr Assad in power in what is left of the Syrian state.When a Russian reporter asked him on Monday night exactly Russia’s role might be in the grand coalition, he fudged.We might, maybe, perhaps, join the air campaign against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil), he said. We’ll provide training and equipment to the side we favour (Mr Assad’s government). But there’s no way in sweet hell, he signalled to the world and the Russian public, that we’re getting embroiled in a Middle Eastern ground war.Sensible enough, perhaps (if you believe Mr Putin’s statements about the whereabouts and activities of his armed forces). But also, if you hadn’t noticed, almost the exact position of Mr Obama’s government (except the Americans, unlike the Russians so far, are actually doing the bombing part).So maybe there is a basis for understanding. Undisguised mutual dislike, frank disagreement on Ukraine, and a business-like recognition that it is much safer to argue about Syria than do anything about it.And maybe Mr Putin is not wrong. After all, a frank discussion of interests and demands is a decent starting point for a deal, even on a problem as intractable as Syria. Perhaps Monday's meeting was, in some sense, constructive after all.

Результаты (русский) 3:

этот неловкий момент, когда барак обама и владимир путин встретился в генеральной ассамблее оон.
редко имеют две мировые лидеры были так явно неуютно в присутствии друг друга, но это не значит, что владимир путин и барака обамы есть, о чем говорить: это дипломатическая эвфемизмы, владимир путин, используемых для описания его встреча с бараком обамой на в понедельник вечером