By Rob Garver
October 15, 2015
Vladimir Putin’s ongoing effort to keep the U.S. off balance has forced the White House into yet another politically awkward choice. The Obama administration has officially refused a meeting with Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and a high-level delegation of Kremlin officials, following an offer from the Russian government to open up talks about the ongoing conflict in Syria.
The offer, extended by the Kremlin, was ostensibly an effort to begin coordinating the two countries’ military efforts against the terror group ISIS. However, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said that the administration has no interest in aligning with the Kremlin in Syria.
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“We’re not interested in doing that, as long as Russia is not willing to make a constructive contribution to our counter-ISIL effort,” said Earnest, according to The Washington Times, referring to the terror group by the acronym preferred by the White House. “Russia has their own agenda and it’s an agenda right now that they’re pursuing on their own. So it’s not particularly surprising to me that President Putin would resort, in some desperation, to try to send the second-highest ranking official in the Russian government to the United States to try to convince us to join them. But the fact is that is a request that’s fallen on deaf ears.”
“We can just express regret,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, according to the government-run news organization TASS. “Any refusal to start dialogue, moreover in such a sensitive situation like we have in Syria, does not facilitate, let's say so, the soonest salvation of that country and the whole region from the so-called Islamic State.