How much does Obama dislike Putin compared to Netanyahu or the Pope?

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Obama's Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes was asked this at a Washington, D.C. forum today
He was reduced to stutters of 'umm, uhh' as he tried to explain the heads of states' complex relationship
Putin and Obama are on frosty terms – even more so after the Russia leader publicly blamed the United States for the rise of ISIS on Monday
They say at the same table at a luncheon that afternoon and Obama gave Putin an icy glare as they toasted each other

By Francesca Chambers, White House Correspondent For Dailymail.com

Published: 11:14 EST, 30 September 2015 | Updated: 05:39 EST, 1 October 2015

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President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin aren't on the warmest of terms, especially after Monday, when the Kremlin head went for the jugular at a gathering of world leaders in New York and publicly blamed the United States for the rise of ISIS.

At a luncheon afterward, Obama gave Putin an ice cold glare as they raised their glasses for a toast following remarks by United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

But just how much does Obama 'not like' the Russian leader?

Asked this at a Washington, D.C. forum today - and where Putin falls on the scale compared to Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu, French President François Hollande and the Pope - Obama's Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes was reduced to stutters of 'umm, uhh' as he tried too explain the heads of states' complex relationship.

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UNCOMFORTABLE: Asked where Russia's president falls on Obama's spectrum compared to Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu, French President François Hollande and the Pope - Obama's Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes was reduced to stutters of 'umm, uhh' as he tried too explain the heads of states' complex relationship

'Umm....' he said after The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg put the question to him at the Washington Ideas Forum. 'I, I don't think there's any way to answer that'

'Umm....' he said after The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg put the question to him. 'I, I don't think there's any way to answer that.'

Goldberg pressed him. 'I think you should try....make believe they're not here,' he said, as a live audience at The Atlantic sponsored Washington Ideas Forum whooped with laughter.

Rhodes cracked a smile, too, as he asked, 'Can we put the Pope at the top?'

He let out a couple umm and uhh's as he tried to diplomatically answer the question and said, 'In terms of their personal relationship, umm, you know, he, he is what, you know, what you see. And when they sit down together, they talk on the phone, it's not like they're, you know, umm, uhh getting into arguments.'

'They're, they're disagreeing with one another, and they're having very straightforward conversations with each other about how they differ,' he said.

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Goldberg had also asked him how Obama how 'important' he thinks Putin is.

To that, Rhodes said that in the last week there's been a 'mass, mass focus on Putin, which I completely understand given what he's doing.'

But neither the president nor the White House necessarily thinks Russia is the most important world actor.

'I think China's gonna play a more significant role in the 21st century,' Rhodes said, 'and sometimes that's lost' in the shuffle because 'Russia and the Middle East were kind of the touchstone of our foreign for so many years' and where the 'tension' has been.

'We think that that's incredibly important,' he said, 'but we also think there's a big world out there.'

In terms of the threat Russia poses to the United States, he said, 'This is not a country that is resurgent' and is going to take over 'vast' areas of land.

Russian separatists' invasion of Ukraine is not an 'offensive' move, he said, it's a 'violation of international law.'

The U.S. will continue to push back on it he said so that other international actors don't 'look at that, and think I can do that too.'

We cannot 'let these types of actions go without consequences,' he said, defending U.S. sanctions on Russia over the escapade.

Rhodes complimented Russia for joining the coalition working to stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, saying 'that was immensely helpful' but he noted that Putin's support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was creating a 'challenge' for the United States in Syria as it tries to rid the country of ISIS.

The White House said this week that Putin and Obama agreed during a private meeting on Monday to 'de-conflict' their military activities in Syria and open the lines of communication about their movements there for 'practical' and 'tactical' reasons.

Yet the U.S. was seemingly caught flat-footed today when Russia began airstrikes in Syria just an hour after notifying the Obama administration of its plans.

'A Russian official in Baghdad this morning informed U.S. embassy personnel that Russian military aircraft would begin flying anti-ISIL missions today over Syria,' State Department spokesman John Kirby said today, adding that, 'He further requested that U.S. aircraft avoid Syrian airspace during these missions.'

According to a U.S. official that spoke to ABC News, there are no ISIS targets in the area of Syria that Russia bombed, however.

The White House this afternoon directed questions about the conflicting information to the Department of Defense.

'It's too early for me to say exactly what targets they were aiming at and what targets were eventually hit,' White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said.

At the Aspen Ideas Festival spin-off this morning, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker had criticized the Obama administration's handling of the terrorists in Syria.

Corker, who spoke just before Rhodes, said the U.S. shouldn't have waited to launch its own airstrikes on the group and shouldn't have held back until heard back from Russia about a possible deal to confiscate the Assad's chemical weapons.

He said the U.S. jumped 'into Putin's lap' while at the same taking 'the wind out of the sails' of Syrian rebels working to dislodge Assad and ISIS.

The group 'had real momentum at that point,' Corker said.