FOXNews.com: INTO THE LION'S DEN: Can Obama tame Putin's Syria opposition?

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INTO THE LION'S DEN: Can Obama tame Putin's Syria opposition? Sep 5th 2013, 12:23 Published September 05, 2013 FoxNews.com President Barack Obama will not meet one-on-one with Russian President Vladimir Putin at this week's G20 summit in St. Petersburg, but Obama said Wednesday that he'll continue to make the case to his Kremlin counterpart to ease off supporting the regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria ahead of possible military strikes against the Damascus government by the U.S.  Obama departed Sweden for Russia Thursday morning, one day after admitting that U.S.-Russian relations have "hit a wall." However, Obama later added that he'd continue to press Putin despite the latter's continuing resistance to any kind of action against Assad.  "It is not possible for Mr. Assad to regain legitimacy in a country where he's killed tens of thousands of his own people," Obama said. "So far, at least, Mr. Putin has rejected that logic." Obama added: "I'm always hopeful, and I will continue to engage him." However, the White House went out of its way to say Obama would not hold bilateral discussions with the Russian leader while in St. Petersburg. Instead, Obama will formally meet on the summit's sidelines with the leaders of France, China and Japan, though a senior administration official said the two presidents will have a chance to speak. Russia's resistance is a key reason why the U.N. Security Council so far has not gotten on board with U.S. calls for action in response to the alleged chemical weapons strike against Syrian rebels on August 21.  Putin has been among the loudest critics on the international stage of Obama's push for a military strike in Syria. He reportedly blasted the push on Wednesday as an "act of aggression." He has said in recent interviews that a strike would be illegal if the United Nations does not support it. Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, underscored during a Senate hearing on Tuesday how Russia stands to undermine any U.S. action. He said the Russians might just replace anything the United States destroys. "There is some indication that (the Russians) have assured the regime that if we destroy something, they can replace it," Dempsey said. He added: "But, you know, that is not a reason for me to hesitate to act." The president said Wednesday there was far more than his own credibility at stake in responding to the chemical weapons attack. "I didn't set a red line, the world set a red line," he said. "The world set a red line when governments representing 98 percent of world population said the use of chemical weapons are abhorrent." He added that Congress set its own red line when it ratified the treaty. With Obama in Europe, his top national security aides were to participate Wednesday in public and private hearings at the Capitol to advance their case for limited strikes in retaliation for what the administration says was a deadly sarin gas attack by Assad's forces in the eastern suburbs of Damascus. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted 10-7 with one abstention to authorize the use of force against Syria Wednesday, the first in a series of votes as the president's request makes its way through Senate and House committees before coming before the two chambers for a final vote, probably sometime next week.  The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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