President Barack Obama looks "weak" for cancelling a fall meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to former British intelligence operative and author Matthew Dunn.
"I think it may appear as a tough stance for Obama to say, 'I'm not going to attend the Moscow Summit.' But, in my belief, actually, it's a weak position," Dunn said Friday on "Fox & Friends."
The White House announced Thursday that Obama was cancelling a meeting with the Russian president, scheduled to take place in September as part of his trip to the G20 summit.
Dunn indicated that he felt the disagreement between the U.S. and Russia over National Security Agency information leaker Edward Snowden was not enough to warrant Obama cancelling the meeting.
"I think it's very curious. There are other areas of antagonisms between the United States and Russia. The Snowden situation is not the only one, obviously," Dunn said.
Dunn, a former field operative with Britain's M16 intelligence service, mentioned North Korea, Syria, China, and the global war against terror as needing the attention of the two presidents.
"For Putin and Obama not to be talking together at a time when we're facing all of these issues, that is enabling some very serious situations to continue," Dunn said.
"Genocide is taking place as we speak in Syria," he added.
As for Europe's view of Obama now compared to when he first entered the world stage as president, Dunn indicated that enthusiasm has cooled.
"I think increasingly within Great Britain and elsewhere in Europe, there is a sense, and it's perhaps a Cretan sense, of letdown," he said. "We looked to Obama as potentially another Kennedy-like figure. And I get the sense now, that a lot of people are saying, 'He is not that person.'"
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