Obama’s Putin snub marks new low in US-Russia ties

MOSCOW: US President Barack Obama’s cancellation of a summit with Vladimir Putin represents a new low in US-Russia relations, which have been eroded not just by the row over US leaker Edward Snowden but a litany of other headaches.

Scrapping a summit is a move unprecedented in US-Russia ties since the Cold War and is bound to be taken as a personal slight against Putin by the Kremlin, which is a stickler for protocol and has already said it is “disappointed”.