Washington:
The crisis in Syria, arms control and missile defense are headlining what are expected to be chilly talks between top US and Russian foreign and defense officials.
Their sit-down is tainted by the case of National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden, which led President Barack Obama to cancel a planned meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Obama this week canceled his September summit with Putin in Moscow because of what the White House called a lack of "significant progress" on a wide array of critical issues. They include Russia's recent decision to grant temporary asylum to Snowden.
The scuttled summit means that talks scheduled for Friday at the State Department between Secretary of State John Kerry, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and their Russian counterparts will be awkward at best.