Putin admitted he was disappointed by his US counterpart’s decision but noted it was not a “catastrophe” and he understood that some of Moscow’s decisions did not sit well with the US administration.
“I think it would be good not to get irritable but for all of us to become patient and work to find solutions.”
The Kremlin earlier said a bilateral meeting or even less formal talks were not scheduled for Putin and Obama at the G20 summit but the Russian strongman said he was looking forward to having a discussion with Obama.
The previous meeting between the two leaders at the G8 summit in Northern Ireland in June was visibly frosty, with journalists scrutinising their body language and pointing to their apparent unease with each other.
Afterwards Obama admitted Putin often looked like “the bored kid in the back of the classroom.”
Putin said he was surprised to hear observers interpret their body language.
“Sometimes I am surprised to read about the language of gestures, about how bored we are or that we behave in some other way. Who can say except ourselves what’s on our mind and in our heart?”
“There are some gestures that can of course be interpreted unambiguously but no-one has ever seen such gestures from me towards Obama or from Obama towards me and I hope that will never happen,” Putin said.
“And the rest is just figments of imagination.”
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