MOSCOW, November 17 (Sputnik) — US President Barack Obama is a lame duck, unable to adequately finish his second presidential term, the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, told Russian News Service radio (RSN) on Monday.
"Obama is a lame duck. One cannot finish his work so incompetently. [He] decided to throw accusations [at Russia]. He met with our president [Putin], they greeted each other. But nothing will come out of it, and this is a pity. I thought better of him," Gorbachev said, commenting on the outcome of the G20 summit in Brisbane, Australia.
Addressing the G20 on November 15, Obama called Russia's alleged aggression toward Ukraine a "threat to the world," echoing a speech he made at the UN General Assembly session in late September, in which he listed Russia among the gravest global threats, along with the Ebola virus and the rise of terrorism in Iraq and Syria.
Ukraine and a number of Western countries accuse Russia of meddling in the armed conflict between government troops and pro-independence forces of the South-East. Top Russian officials have repeatedly branded the claims as groundless.
During the G20 summit held over the weekend, Russian President Vladimir Putin faced fierce criticism from a number of Western leaders, who used the occasion to accuse Moscow of interfering in the Ukrainian conflict. Putin left the summit early, skipping a working breakfast and an official communique, however, pointing out the event's "constructive setting."
