Putin and Obama may hold informal talk next week

Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Barack Obama may hold informal discussions when they travel to the Asia-Pacific region next week for international summits, officials said today.
The two leaders last met in June, when they exchanged a few words during a ceremony in France marking the D-Day invasion anniversary. With Russia-West ties at their lowest point since the Cold War, amid the dispute over Ukraine, the strain in their personal relations was clearly visible. Next week, Obama and Putin will attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Beijing, then the G20 summit in Australia.
Putin's foreign affairs adviser, Yuri Ushakov, said Friday that no meeting has been set but that Putin and Obama have "a good chance" to meet on the sidelines. Ushakov emphasized that Putin wasn't shunning such a meeting. In Washington, White House National Security Adviser Susan Rice said that while there were no plans for a formal meeting between Obama and Putin, "I wouldn't be at all surprised if they had some informal communication.