White House Press Secretary Jay Carney reiterated his Thursday statement that the White House is "continuing to evaluate the utility" of an upcoming summit with Russia Monday in the White House press conference.
With respect to deciding whether the meetings will occur, Carney said the White House is considering not just Russia's recent actions with respect to harboring Edward Snowden, but also the United State's continued disagreement with Moscow on Syria:
JONATHAN KARL: How can the president go to Moscow and meet with Putin just after this slap in the face?
JAY CARNEY: I think it's fair to say we have a range of issues Jon, to discuss with the Russians. And as I said the other day it has been true for four and a half years now that we have dealt with the Russians and a very realistic way in an effort to cooperate where we can and to be very clear and pointed where we disagree. We obviously disagree with the Russians very strongly about the decision they've made on Mr. Snowden, we disagree with them on a number of other issues, including Syria. We have made those disagreements plain, both publicly and privately in our discussions with the Russians. So when it comes to the utility of a summit in Moscow, a bilateral summit, we are evaluating that against not just our disagreement over Mr. Snowden, but some of the other issues where we have failed to see thus far eye-to-eye and once we have fully assessed the utility of a summit, we'll make an announcement.