Condoleezza Rice agrees with Obama on canceling meeting with Russia

WASHINGTON, Aug. 9 (UPI) -- Former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Friday said she believes President Obama was "absolutely right" to call off meetings with Vladimir Putin.

Obama called off meetings with the president of Russia in part because Putin decided to grant asylum to National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden, The Hill reported.

"The president is absolutely right not to go to Moscow for bilateral meetings with Putin right now -- there's nothing to talk about," Rice said in an interview on CBS "This Morning." "The slap in the face to the United States of America? Of giving asylum to Edward Snowden? The president absolutely cannot go to a bilateral conversation with President Putin. President Obama tried to 'reset' Russian relations. We reset and Russia didn't."

Rice, who also served as national security adviser under President George W. Bush, said although U.S.-Russian relations are tense right now, they will not likely rise to the level of the Cold War.

"The relationship today is terrible, just to be very blunt about it, but it's not the Cold War," she said. "You have to start with the fact that we have very few overlapping interests any longer with Russia, with this Russia. I don't think that you sacrifice very much by saying to Putin and Russia -- look, we are not going to sacrifice our interests to court you."