Obama, Putin To Meet Face-To-Face Amid Rising Tensions

NPR

Published September 28, 2015 at 12:06 PM EDT

Russia's President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Barack Obama will hold their first face-to-face meeting today in nearly a year. In this Sept. 5, 2013, photo, Putin reaches out to shake hands with Obama during arrivals for the G-20 summit at the Konstantin Palace in St. Petersburg, Russia. (Dmitry Lovetsky/AP)

After speaking to the United Nations General Assembly today, President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold their first-face-to-face meeting in nearly a year.

The two leaders will likely discuss Russia’s new military buildup in Syria. Russia is one of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s few allies and Putin says Assad needs help fighting ISIS. Russia’s aggression in Ukraine is a another probable topic for the leaders who haven’t been together since a rather frosty encounter at the G20 Summit in Australia last year.

Edward Lucas of The Economist discusses the current tensions between the U.S. and Russia and what each leader’s agenda is, with Here & Now’s Jeremy Hobson.

Guest

Edward Lucas, senior editor at The Economist and a senior vice-president at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA). He is author of “The New Cold War: Putin’s Russia and the Threat to the West.” He tweets @edwardlucas.