Juan Cole: How Putin Saved Obama, Congress and the EU from Further Embarrassing themselves on Syria

[pampango]

12. Obama and Putin discussed this weapons plan idea at the G20 summit last week

Russia has backed up US claims that Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin discussed the idea of putting Syria's chemical weapons under international control at the G20 summit last week.

On Monday the idea appeared to emerge from a slip by US secretary of state John Kerry, which was then seized on by Moscow.

But in TV interviews Obama insisted that he had first raised the idea at the G20 summit as his administration scrambled to claim credit for the Russian deal and insisted Syria was responding to US pressure. "It is unlikely that we would have arrived at that point without a credible military threat," Obama told CNN.

Now Obama's version of events has been backed by Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov. "The issue was discussed," Peskov told Reuters. He would not say who raised the issue or give other details.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/10/syria-crisis-iran-backs-russia-chemical-weapons-plan-live

This would also explain why Russia agreed to the proposal so quickly. It had already been discussed in St Petersburg.