A meeting between Russian president Vladimir Putin and US president Barack Obama has been cancelled after Russia decided to grant Edward Snowden asylum.
Obama will attend the G20 summit in St Petersburg but has cancelled a meeting with Putin, saying he was “disappointed” with Russia’s decision.
"We have reached the conclusion that there is not enough recent progress in our bilateral agenda with Russia to hold a US-Russia Summit," the White House said in a statement, saying that there also had been a lack of progress on issues ranging from missile defence to human rights.
"We believe it would be more constructive to postpone the summit until we have more results from our shared agenda," the White House said.
Speaking on a TV show, Obama criticised the Kremlin’s passing of anti-gay legislation.
"I have no patience for countries that try to treat gays or lesbians or transgender persons in ways that intimidate them or are harmful to them," Obama said.
The Kremlin responded that it was disappointed by the move and that the invitation was still open.
