President Barack Obama will hold a rare in-person meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin during the United Nations General Assembly next week in New York amid a new flare-up of tensions over Russia’s moves in Syria.
The White House decided the meeting would serve as a test of whether high-level engagement with the Russians can result in any progress in resolving profound differences, according to a administration official, who requested anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. The official said Putin requested the discussion, which also was announced in Moscow by a Kremlin spokesman.