Russian and foreign political analysts are divided in their expectations of what will take place during the upcoming meeting between heads of state Putin and Obama.
"I don’t think that one meeting will attempt to solve anything. But, in any case, further aggravation [of the situation] promises no good, either to our countries or to the rest of the world," Aleksei Martynov, Director of the International Institute of the Newly Established States told RIA Novosti.
"However, I hope that not only President Putin, but also US President Obama has this understanding and will be able to shift some misunderstanding and understatements," he added.
The absence of a high-level dialogue between the two, he said, has led to accumulated questions and understatements which should be discussed.
However, Martynov admitted, decisions are rarely made at such meetings. It is more of an exchange of the views and fixing of positions on this or that issue, which this time is going to be Syria, Ukraine and the Islamic State.
"It will be more of a clarification of mutual positions, primarily Russia’s," he opined. "Russia has recently undertaken a number of actions, and the American partners will likely ask to explain."
The expert also projected that President Putin is likely to put forward some compromise suggestion on Moscow’s participation in the fight against the Islamic State in Syria and on defining of the role of President Assad in this fight.
“If the sides fail to align their positions, the meeting will simply wrap up with the familiarization with each other’s positions, which will be then announced,” he said.
However, he suggested that regardless of the outcome of the meeting, it will definitely have an image-building effect for Moscow.
Both experts warned against any expectations of a thaw in the bilateral relations between the two, as both leaders perceive each other as heads of states which have discrepancies and topics to discuss. It will be a formal encounter.
Previous Brief Encounters of the Presidents
This year the two leaders had just sporadic phone conversations in February, June and July, mostly focusing on the military crisis in Ukraine, the Normandy Four meeting in Minsk, the Syrian crisis, the Islamic State and Iran’s nuclear program.
In 2014, the two presidents had two 15-minute face-to-face encounters. One occurred on the sidelines of the APEC Summit in Beijing in November 2014.
"On three occasions throughout the day, for a total of approximately 15-20 minutes, President Obama had an opportunity to speak with President Putin," the US media then quoted White House spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan as telling reporters. "Their conversations covered Iran, Syria and Ukraine."
Another occurred in June, on the sidelines of a D-Day lunch in France. The pair broke away from the crowd and spent about 15 minutes, reportedly talking about Ukraine.
In 2013, Putin and Obama met on the sidelines of the G8 summit in Northern Ireland, which took place on June 17-18.
“A subsequent photoshoot produced one of the most notorious images of the pair, with both men evidently unable to hide their frustration at the other,” according to The Washington Post.
The frustration supposedly was over the situation in Syria and their major difference in stances over President Assad.
Later that year, President Obama cancelled a summit with President Putin which would have been held in Russia ahead of the G20 meeting in St. Petersburg in September.
The two however did meet in St. Petersburg to speak privately for about 20 to 30 minutes in the corner of the room while the rest of the guests watched. Syria was said to take up the majority of the conversation.
Their previous encounters were much lengthier – up to two hours, but the political situation has become more adversarial since then.
