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President Obama to visit Sweden in September

US President Barack Obama will visit Sweden in September after ditching plans to head to Moscow to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

President Obama to visit Sweden in September

“Following a careful review begun in July, we have reached the conclusion that there is not enough recent progress in our bilateral agenda with Russia to hold a US-Russia Summit in early September,” The White House wrote in a statement on Wednesday.

RELATED STORY: ‘Barack Obama needs European friends right now’: Swedish expert

“Russia’s disappointing decision to grant Edward Snowden temporary asylum was also a factor that we considered in assessing the current state of our bilateral relationship.”

Instead of Moscow, the president will head on his first ever visit to Sweden.

“We’re really excited to have him come to Sweden,” Jeff Anderson, spokesman at the US embassy in Stockholm, told The Local. “We’re looking forward to have him here.”

Obama had intended to meet with Putin in early September, but Russia’s granting of temporary asylum to National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden has only “worsened relations” between the two countries, according to White House deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes.

“We’ll still work with Russia on issues where we can find common ground, but it was the unanimous view of the president and his national security team that a summit did not make sense in the current environment,” Rhodes said, according to the AP news agency.

The Putin meet up in Moscow was planned to coincide with the G20 summit in Saint Petersburg on September 5th to 6th, which Obama still plans to attend.

Obama had expressed his disappointment with Russia as recently as Tuesday during an interview with US TV host Jay Leno, where the pair discussed Russia’s lack of cooperation with the US over Edward Snowden’s extradition attempts, even though the US does not have an extradition treaty with Russia.

Obama pointed to the Snowden case as being “reflective of some underlying challenges” the US had had with Russia lately, adding, however, that there “hasn’t been major breaks in the relationship”.

The president also took the chance to comment on how the Russians are still engaged in “Cold War thinking”.

“There have been times where they slip back into Cold War thinking and a Cold War mentality. And what I consistently say to them, and what I say to President Putin, is that’s the past and we’ve got to think about the future, and there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to cooperate more effectively than we do,” he said.

The news was welcomed by Sweden’s Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt.

“It’s a good chance to discuss the political and economic developments in the world directly with President Obama and it’s a chance to present the Swedish opinions,” he said in a statement.

“I’m looking forward to discussing trade conditions, the need for reforms, and the economic situation in Europe and the world.”

Sweden’s Foreign Minister Carl Bildt took to Twitter to voice his appreciation.

The first, and so far last, time a US president visited Sweden was during the 2001 EU-US summit in Gothenburg, but George W. Bush and his fellow world leaders sparked extensive rioting across the western city – leading the police to detain almost 700 people and to shoot several demonstrators.

The statement issued by the White House confirming the visit referred to Sweden as a “close friend” of the United States, praising the country for “key leadership” on important international issues, including the forging of a new EU-US trade deal.

According to the statement, President Obama will arrive in Stockholm on September 4th and stay overnight before departing on September 5th to the G-20 Summit.

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RUSSIA

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny discharged from Berlin hospital

Russia's leading opposition politician Alexei Navalny, who the West believes was poisoned with a Novichok nerve agent, has been discharged from hospital after just over a month, the Berlin medical facility treating him said Wednesday.

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny discharged from Berlin hospital
Alexei Navalny. Photo: Uncredited/Navalny Instagram/AP/DPA

“Based on the patient's progress and current condition, the treating physicians believe that complete recovery is possible,” Charite hospital said in a statement, adding however that it remained too early to assess any long-term effects of his severe poisoning.

The 44-year-old Kremlin critic and anti-corruption campaigner fell ill after boarding a plane in Siberia last month and was hospitalised there before being flown to Berlin.

He spent 32 days in the Berlin hospital, including 24 days in intensive care, before his release.

Germany has said toxicology tests provide “unequivocal proof” that he had been poisoned by the Soviet-era military-grade nerve agent, which was also used in a separate poisoning in 2018 on ex-double agent Sergei Skripal in Salisbury, Britain.

France and Sweden have since said tests they ran independently corroborate with Germany's conclusions.

European leaders have demanded explanations from Moscow, with Chancellor Angela Merkel saying that “only Russia can and must” provide answers on the poisoning.

READ ALSO: How Navalny case is poisoning ties between Germany and Russia

Navalny's allies say he may have been poisoned by a cup of tea he drank at Tomsk airport in Siberia.

But the Russian doctors who first treated Navalny said their tests did not find any toxic substances, and the Kremlin has rejected international calls for an investigation.

In his first blog post since emerging from coma, Navalny said on Monday that the three European labs had found Novichok “in and on my body”.

 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 

 
 

 
 
 

«Владимир Путин сообщил французскому коллеге: «Навальный мог сам проглотить этот яд». Хорошая версия. Считаю, что заслуживает самого пристального изучения. Сварил на кухне «Новичок». Тихо отхлебнул из фляжки в самолете. Впал в кому. До этого договорился с женой, друзьями и коллегами, что, если Минздрав будет настаивать, чтоб меня увезли лечить в Германию, они ни в коем случае не позволяли это сделать. Помереть в омской больнице и оказаться в омском морге, где установили бы причину смерти «пожил достаточно», – вот конечная цель моего хитрого плана. Но Путин меня переиграл. Его просто так не проведёшь. В итоге я, как дурак, пролежал в коме 18 дней, но своего не добился. Провокация не удалась!

A post shared by Алексей Навальный (@navalny) on Sep 22, 2020 at 12:04pm PDT

He noted that Russia had still not opened an investigation but that he “did not expect anything else.”

Navalny aides said Thursday that German experts found Novichok nerve agent on a water bottle taken from the hotel room where he stayed before being taken ill.

The bottle appears to have been key evidence for Germany's conclusion that the 44-year-old lawyer and outspoken critic of President Vladimir Putin was poisoned with the military-grade nerve agent.

READ ALSO: Russian opposition leader 'can walk with a tremble' after Berlin treatment

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