“We’re extremely disappointed,” Carney told reporters. “We’re evaluating the utility of a summit in light of this.”
“We’re extremely disappointed that the Russian government would take this step despite our very clear and lawful requests in public and in private to have Mr. Snowden expelled to the United States to face the charges against him,” Carney said.
“This move by the Russian government undermines a long standing record of law enforcement cooperation, cooperation that has recently been on the upswing since the Boston Marathon bombings.”
Pifer, for one, suggested a moderate response was the best way forward.
“I’m not sure that pushing back really hard is going to help,” said Pifer, a former ambassador to Ukraine.
“We don’t know what motivated this particular decision by the Russians now, but Putin has shown that he reacts very badly to threats.”
While Obama is sure to be criticized if he does make the trip, “the real question is, is Putin prepared to make that summit productive enough so at the end of the day there are results that would justify the political cost that the president’s going to pay at home,” he added.
“Our relationship with Russia, as is the case with other important countries around the world, is based in realism,” Carney said.
“And it is a simple fact that the so called reset in our relations with Russia produced positive benefits for American national security and for the American people.”
The Russian decision also comes at a time when the Obama administration faces criticism in Congress over the spy programs, with the aftermath of Snowden’s leaks providing what is likely the best chance since the attacks of September 11, 2001 to rein them in.
On July 24, the House of Representatives narrowly beat back an effort to cut funding to NSA programs that scoop up telephone data on millions of Americans.
Under mounting pressure from lawmakers, the Obama administration, in the name of transparency, on Wednesday declassified a court order authorizing the collection.
And on Thursday afternoon, Obama was due to meet with bipartisan lawmakers in the Oval Office “to discuss key programs under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.”
Administration officials are “trying to find a way to protect programs that they still believe are important for national security, and the public revelations has put a spotlight on these programs,” Pifer said.
“There are now a lot of questions that they’re going to have to answer if they want to sustain congressional support for the programs.”
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