11 Awkward Photos Of Obama & Vladimir Putin That'll Make You Cringe

It was an action-packed few days at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Beijing. But while world leaders were brokering billion-dollar technology tariffs and other silly stuff, all eyes were on the icy, two-day tango between Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Barack Obama.

The light brush of a hand on his shoulder. The death stares smoldering with hatred. The please-put-someone-between-us-or-I'm-going-to-rip-your-head-off brotherly love. Yes, tensions may still be high over whole illegally annexing a country thing, but the bitterness between the U.S. and Russia — or, maybe even more specifically, our leaders — has been fermenting for a while. Several reporters have indicated that the awkwardness is palpable, saying that it seems like Obama and Putin are purposefully avoiding any sort of confrontation.

"On three occasions throughout the day, for a total of approximately 15-20 minutes, President Obama had an opportunity to speak with President Putin," National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan told CNN. "Their conversations covered Iran, Syria, and Ukraine." Listen, anytime that you're tallying the number of minutes that someone talked throughout an entire day, you know that there is a problem. And if it took the world leaders three times to total less than a half hour? Well, I wouldn't want to be standing anywhere near that small-talk train wreck.

Let's take a look at the awkward progression that is the Obama-Putin love line.