Putin Won’t Attend G8

Vladimir Putin will not travel to the United States to attend the G8 summit at Camp David next week, the new president instead sending Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev instead. A senior Obama administration official said, “Putin will not attend the G8. He has to finalize the cabinet in the new Russian government. However he will meet with the president on the margins of the G20 summit in mid-June.” However, Putin may also be avoiding the trip because he spent much of his campaign criticizing the U.S. government and suggested that Hillary Clinton was encouraging unrest inside Russia.