Kerry and Hagel Meet Lavrov and Shoygu at State Department

epa03818027 (L-R), Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoygu, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, US Secretary of State John Kerry and US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel meet at the State Department in Washington DC, USA, 09 August 2013. The meeting comes after President Obama canceled an up-coming meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The State Department said that the Snowden case as well as Russia’s repression of gay rights would be on the agenda when US Secretary of State John Kerry and Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Defence Minister Sergei Kuzhugetovich Shoygu. The so-called two-plus-two meetings had been planned long before the dispute erupted over fugitive Edward Snowden, a former intelligence contractor and admitted leaker of secret US surveillance programmes. EPA/JIM LO SCALZO