http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/25/world ... .html?_r=0
WASHINGTON — In case anyone had doubt, the White House wanted it known on Thursday that it was President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia who asked to meet with President Obama, not the other way around.
Mr. Putin was not just eager for a meeting, said Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary, but in fact “desperate” for one.
The emphasis on who wanted to meet more underscored the sensitivities and risks of the meeting, which the White House officially announced on Thursday. Mr. Obama has not seen Mr. Putin in nearly a year, and the two have not had a formal sit-down meeting in more than two years, before Russia annexed Crimea and intervened in eastern Ukraine.
“It’s a tough one for Obama,” said Fiona Hill, a former national intelligence officer on Russia who is now at the Brookings Institution. “He has to meet with him given the circumstances. But it’s not very clear what we’re going to get out of it. The Russians have made their position crystal clear: They want to have a central say about what happens.”
