Moscow is Disappointed

Moscow—Dis­ap­point­ment was ex­pressed by the Rus­sian cap­i­tal to­day, af­ter Unit­ed States Pres­i­dent Oba­ma can­celed his Septem­ber meet­ing with its own pres­i­den­tial coun­ter­part. This ac­tion fol­lows the sim­i­lar dis­ap­point­ment, felt and du­ly ex­pressed by Oba­ma, re­sult­ing from Moscow's re­cent grant­ing of tem­po­rary asy­lum to the most want­ed ob­ject of the U.S., Ed­ward Snow­den.

A dispir­it­ed Krem­lin build­ing, its nor­mal­ly bright ex­te­ri­or tak­ing on a sulky gray cast at be­ing snubbed, stood for­lorn as both cit­i­zens and vis­i­tors in­stinc­tive­ly gave it plen­ty of room in pass­ing. A near­by tour guide at­tempt­ed to cheer his English-speak­ing flock by mak­ing the quip "Two dis­ap­point­ments do not make an ap­point­ment," but the sub­dued laugh­ter end­ed a few sec­onds lat­er as a sud­den rain show­er drenched the group.

The sun shone up­on the Swedish cap­i­tal of Stock­holm, mean­while, as it was an­nounced that Pres­i­dent Oba­ma will pay a vis­it to that coun­try in place of the can­celed Moscow trip. De­light­ed and fes­tive prepa­ra­tions were al­ready in progress, and it is an­tic­i­pat­ed that a large gift of in­for­ma­tion is be­ing read­ied for the guest and his as­so­ciates.