The U.S. authorities tend to seriously exaggerate the role of the activities of former CIA employee Edward Snowden, Mikhail Margelov, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Federation Council, the upper chamber of Russia's parliament, told Interfax.

"What Snowden has done should not lead to a cold spell between our countries because even during the Cold War and Detente neither the situation with Sakharov and Bukovsky in the Soviet Union nor the situation with Angela Davis and Leonard Peltier in the U.S. created obstacles for bilateral meetings of our leaders," Margelov said, commenting on U.S. President Barack Obama's decision to cancel his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The two great powers, which are UN Security Council permanent members, were supposed to discuss control over nuclear weapons, space exploration, regional conflicts and other issues, the Russian parliamentarian said.

"Times change, but even today global problems demand personal meetings of the U.S. and Russian leaders just as much as they did during the Cold War. Suffice to mention at least the situation in the Middle East, North Africa and the Sahel, as well as the arms race, the economic crisis, etc," Margelov said.

Hopefully, during their upcoming 2+2 meeting in Washington, the defense and foreign ministers of Russia and the U.S. will be able to minimize the possible damage caused to Russian-U.S. relations by Obama's refusal to hold a bilateral meeting with Putin on the sidelines of the G20 summit in September, he said.