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also president Obama news President Obama
amid the controversy over Russia's granting of a one-year asylum to NSA
leaker Edward snowden
has canceled his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin which was
scheduled to take place next month
I I asked I think it was last week I think I i
by I think it was late last week in fact will the
Russian asylum for Edward snowden
have a direct impact on US-russian relations which
while technically they are they are good relations or
our friendly relations we know continue to have months right
and when I asked that I assume that if the answer was yes there will be
diplomatic repercussions here
they wouldn't be obvious to us they wouldn't just show up on
you know the AP's by newswire and that's exactly what has happened we now have
news that President Obama is canceling plans to meet with Russian President
Vladimir Putin next month and the AP says as follows:
the decision reflects both US and her over Russia's harboring a National
Security Agency weaker
Edward snowden and growing frustration with the Obama administration
over what it sees as Moscow's stubbornness
on other key issues including missile defense and human rights
so II the I'm split on this for two reasons
if it is over oh and it seems to be about two things let's focus on those
first number one the Snowdon asylum number two
when we talk about human rights that could be the incredibly
anti-gay stuff coming out of russia so I really am split on this
let's explore first the asylum if the US is angry with Russia
for not extraditing someone that the US has asked to be extradited
there is total hypocrisy if we look I just a year ago
President Obama refused
to extradite the Bolivarian ex-president de Lozada
who was welcomed into the US by the Bush administration bolivia demanded he be
extradited to stand trial
and the US did not do that so that's hypocritical the US does the same thing
now maybe the US doesn't really care about relationship the relationship with
Bolivia or
is not as interested in actively having a public dispute over that but again
if the US is angry about Russian making
a decision that they they can make about asylum
we have to remember that the US has also refused extradition request
from other countries that part I think shows
I a little bit OVA OVA decline certainly in diplomatic
relations on the other side though is this issue of human rights which the
White House said
the canceling a meeting with Putin is in part over human rights and by that I can
only assume
the the references to the incredibly anti-gay policies that we've been
hearing we covered
out of russia we covered last week the story of a Russian politician saying
that during the
Olympics in Russia they will indeed arrest
any gay athletes and any gay tourists are spectators
I think it is absolutely correct for President Obama
to take a stand on that and to say I'm not going to meet with the president
who is overseeing that type of policy
but what are your thoughts on this we're really stuck in a situation where
many people myself included have mixed feelings
the stubbornness over the extradition
and is and and then the the
position on the gay rights human rights issue I am split on I feel differently
about the two
and the result for now is that President Obama has canceled this meeting with
Wladimir Putin
what do you think about it with this be simpler if it would you be able to more
easily take a position on this as as an observer of politics
if it was only over one of these things rather than to
things that I i predict a lot of our audience feels definitely
a not not exactly the same about