Obama and Putin Talk Trash and Clink Glasses at UN Ahead of Private Meeting

The long-running disputes between President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin over Ukraine and Syria played out in public at the UN on Monday, with each leader getting pilloried by the other in front of the General Assembly.

In a lengthy speech that ran well over the 15 minutes allotted each country, Obama, speaking first, stacked accusations against Russia, accusing it of meddling in the affairs of Ukraine and emboldening the regime of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria.

"Imagine if, instead, Russia had engaged in true diplomacy, and worked with Ukraine and the international community to ensure its interests were protected," said Obama.

"We recognize the deep and complex history between Russia and Ukraine," he said. "But we cannot stand by when the sovereignty and territorial integrity of a nation is flagrantly violated."

But it was Obama's remarks about Russia's forays into the Middle East that caught the ears of many in the Assembly hall.

Related: Obama Hits Putin Hard at the UN, But Says He's Willing to Work With Russia and Iran on Syria

On Sunday, the Iraqi government announced it would enter into an agreement with the Kremlin, along with Syria and Iran, to share intelligence on the so-called Islamic State (IS). US officials, still scrambling to respond to Russia's growing military intervention in Syria, appeared to be caught off guard by the decision. In the halls of the UN, the intelligence-sharing arrangement was seen as another coup by Moscow and Iran, and a carefully orchestrated move ahead of Monday's speeches.

Speaking to reporters on Sunday, a senior State Department official said, "We're just at the beginning of trying to understand what the Russians' intentions are in Syria, in Iraq."

Obama had little to add, but took the high road, criticizing, in a not so thinly veiled allusion to Russia and Iran, what he called repressive policies that damage the long term viability of governments.

"Just as force alone cannot impose order internationally, I believe in my core that repression cannot forge the social cohesion for nations to succeed," Obama said.

The stance of moral superiority did not sit well with Putin.

Taking the lectern shortly after Obama, the Russian president, without naming the US directly, admonished it for causing the current turmoil in the Mideast. Along with the Arab Spring, he said the American invasion of Iraq and NATO intervention in Libya planted the seed and provided a path for extremist groups like IS.

"I cannot help asking those who have caused this situation: do you realize now what you have done?" asked Putin. "It is now obvious that the power vacuum created in some countries of the Middle East and North Africa led to emergence of anarchy areas. Those immediately started to be filled with extremists and terrorists."

Related: Russian Weapons Keep Rolling Towards Syria as Russia and the US Open Talks

Putin, like Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who spoke shortly after, said defeating terrorism should be the region's top priority. Both presidents proposed broad — but vague — coalitions to fight extremism. For Russia and Iran, that means cooperating with Assad, a move that has been a non-starter for the US.

"We think it is an enormous mistake to refuse to cooperate with the Syrian government and its Armed Forces," said Putin. "We should finally acknowledge that no one but President Assad's armed forces and Kurd militia are truly fighting the Islamic State and other terrorist organizations in Syria."

Publicly, the chasm between US and Russian policy on Syria is straightforward: Moscow believes the first priority should be defeating IS, and that to do so means supporting the Assad Regime. The US and its Western allies insist that Assad's brutality has emboldened IS, and that removing each from Syria is the same side of a coin, and each a necessity. But while the US-led coalition has targeted IS from the air for more than a year, it is still unwilling to devote ground forces, nor is it considering targeting the Syrian government.

Two years ago, after regime forces reportedly unleashed nerve agents in a Damascus suburb and crossed a "red line" defined by Obama, the Russians deftly arranged an agreement to dispose of Assad's chemical weapons stockpile and avert US strikes on the regime. Though the regime has weakened somewhat since then, it no longer faces the threat of American bombs.

The precise size of Russia's current intervention in Syria is still unclear, but it is already paying dividends, said Yezid Sayigh, a senior associate at the Carnegie Middle East Center.

"It's exposed that the US and EU don't really have a strategy for Syria, they are just trundling around," Sayigh said. "By doing something initially very modest, sending a few hundred troops and helicopters to a non-combat zone, Putin's got everyone's attention and suddenly has political traction."

Russian officials told VICE News that Obama and Putin will meet sometime this evening for bilateral discussions. Syria is expected to figure prominently. Secretary of State John Kerry met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in the lead-up to Monday, trying to set the table for an encounter between the two presidents. In his speech, which otherwise roundly lambasted the Russians, Obama did offer an olive branch, saying, "The United States is prepared to work with any nation, including Russia and Iran, to resolve the conflict."

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Obama cautioned, however, that "we must recognize that there another be, after so much bloodshed, so much carnage, a return to the pre-war status quo."

Nikolay Kozhanov, a fellow at Chatham House's Russia and Eurasia Program, said Moscow had been able to earn diplomatic dividends from its presence in Syria. But he added that it still wasn't clear if Russia was in fact fighting rebels, or how much more money it was willing to spend to prop up Assad.

"Moscow probably remembers that the Soviet war in Afghanistan was one of those factors that exhausted and shattered the USSR economy, and it does not want to repeat this experience," he said. "The deployment of full-fledged ground forces for a long period and far from Russian borders would require immense economic resources. And that's what the Kremlin lacks."

Speaking before both Obama and Putin, Secretary General Ban Ki Moon rebuked the Security Council, including Russia and the US, saying a "diplomatic paralysis has allowed the conflict to spin out of control." Ban said the situation in Syria had to be referred to the International Criminal Court, a move that both Russia and China vetoed last year. Offering rare specificity, Ban said it was in the hands of the United States, Russia, Iran, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia to resolve the civil war.

"But as long as one side will not compromise with the other, it is futile to expect change on the ground," said Ban.

Following the day of speeches, Obama and Putin were seen clinking glasses after Ban gave a toast at the annual Secretary General's luncheon. In a photograph of the moment, Putin can be seen cracking a slight smile while Obama presents a decidedly stern visage.

Follow Samuel Oakford on Twitter: @samueloakford