Washington ( CNN ) -- President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin will have an opportunity to speak `` on the margins '' of the G-20 summit in Russia , a White House official said . The development is a significant departure from what senior administration officials had said previously about Obama 's trip to the international forum in St. Petersburg , noting that there would not be an information meeting . The president left Washington on Tuesday night . The United States and Russia are currently squaring off over the bloody civil war in Syria . Obama has sought congressional authorization for a limited military strike to punish President Bashar al-Assad 's regime for its alleged use of chemical weapons against its own people earlier this month . Russia , a Syrian ally and major trading partner , has expressed doubts about whether those weapons were used at all . The Syrian regime denies it launched such an attack . Russia , along with China , would be expected to block any call for any military action against Syria by the U.N. Security Council . Obama also plans to meet formally with Chinese President Xi Jinping as well as French President Francois Hollande at the summit , the official said . Secretary of State John Kerry hinted at a Senate hearing on Syria on Tuesday that Obama and Putin would have an opportunity to talk at the G-20 . `` He will have ample opportunity to hear firsthand from President Putin , '' Kerry said in response to a question about Russia 's involvement in Syria . `` I am confident they will have a discussion about it . '' The White House last month formally canceled a formal Obama-Putin meeting that was to have taken place in Moscow during this trip , citing a lack of progress in relations since Putin regained the presidency a year ago . The decision came shortly after Russia decided to grant temporary asylum to Edward Snowden , the admitted leaker of U.S. surveillance secrets . Although the White House acknowledged at the time that Snowden 's asylum was a factor , a senior administration official told CNN that the meeting probably would have been canceled regardless . Obama on Friday will meet with Russian civil society leaders to discuss human rights and tolerance , a White House official said . Also invited to that meeting are groups representing human rights , the environment and LGBT rights . CNN 's Jim Acosta , Dan Merica Jake Tapper and Tom Cohen contributed to this report .
Russia and the United States at odds over Syria , which allegedly used chemical weapons . The United States is weighing a possible military strike to punish Syria 's Bashar al-Assad . Score: 6 Obama will also meet with Chinese and French presidents at G-20 .