The story of last week's encounter between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump reflects on a smaller scale their closely scrutinized bilateral relationship and the caution they feel they must exert when approaching one another.

Shortly before their brief dialogue at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in Vietnam, Al-Monitor reported that the flurry of activity between the two countries at different levels indicated they were working on some joint decisions to be announced afterward. Hours before the two presidents were supposed to sit down for a conversation, both Sputnik and The Associated Press reported a potential bilateral agreement was being brewed that would mention such issues as continued deconfliction between the US and Russian forces operating in Syria, and reviving peace talks in Geneva.

Yet the meeting, which had been under preparation for a few weeks, if not months — and that Moscow clearly wanted — didn’t take place. Trump was the only leader to skip the two plenary sessions on the first official day of the summit, raising speculation among the Russians about whether he was intentionally dodging Putin. Russian officials have been bewildered by this attitude, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying, “There was no clarity over whether the meeting was going to take place, but given the two presidents are in town, they’ll meet one way or another.” Visibly irritated, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told a clingy Russian reporter “to go ask Americans about the [Putin-Trump] meeting." Peskov added, "We heard Trump's intent for the meeting, but I don’t know what his pencil pushers ultimately told him."

Later, a well-connected Kommersant reporter, Andrey Kolesnikov from Putin’s press pool, referenced a source in the Russian delegation who argued the main reason the meeting didn’t take place — even though it seemed to have been agreed upon — was the Americans' sudden decision to change the location.