Obama, Putin Give Off Chilly Body Language In The Heat Of Mexico’s Coast

Source: Associated Press

LOS CABOS, Mexico — It’s hard to tell if President Barack Obama got a sense of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s soul. In front of reporters, they hardly looked at each other.

In their first meeting since 2009, Obama and Putin shared little eye contact and did not appear to express much personal warmth following a two-hour meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit. Putin made brief remarks and then looked down at the table as Obama spoke to reporters, aided by a translator.

The gathering had a much different feel compared with President George W. Bush’s first meeting with Putin in Slovenia in June 2001. Bush said then that he was “able to get a sense of his soul.”

Yet aides said the media shouldn’t draw any conclusions from the chilly body language. They said the meeting wouldn’t have lasted as long as it did if the two leaders didn’t get along.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/obama-putin-give-off-chilly-body-language-in-the-heat-of-mexicos-coast/2012/06/18/gJQAoiWQmV_story.html