Obama does not think of Putin as chess master

US President Barack Obama does not believe that Russian President Vladimir Putin has beaten his Western counterparts.

"There was a spate of stories about how he is the chess master and outmaneuvering the West and outmaneuvering Mr. Obama and this and that and the other. And right now, he's presiding over the collapse of his currency, a major financial crisis and a huge economic contraction. That doesn't sound like somebody who has rolled me or the United States of America," Obama said in an interview with CNN. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin said earlier that he did not consider the US a threat to Russia, but urged Washington to abandon imperial ambitions. "I did not say that the United States was a threat to us. President Obama, as you said, considers Russia a threat, but I do not think that the United States pose a threat to us," Russian President Putin said answering a question during Valdai Club discussion. 

"One can, of course, silence many things up. But taking unilateral actions and searching for allies afterwards, creating a coalition after everything has been done - these are not the way to negotiate, these are unilateral actions. They are constantly being made in the current policy the United States and lead to the crises," Vladimir Putin said.