President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev announced agreements on goals for nuclear weapons cuts and transit rights for US planes headed to Afghanistan. They also talked about finding common ground and reducing their differences. The World’s Jeb Sharp reports.
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LISA MULLINS: I’m Lisa Mullins, and this is The World. President Barack Obama went to Moscow to help reset the relationship between the United States and Russia. Well today, he met with Russian President, Dimitry Medvedev, and then the two leaders announced a major component of that reset process. It’s an agreement to reduce the number of the two countries’ nuclear warheads. The new accord is due to replace the 1991 start treaty between Washington and Moscow. President Obama says, this agreement announced today is an important step toward stopping the spread of nuclear weapons.
BARACK OBAMA: This starts with the reduction of our own nuclear arsenals. As the world’s two leading nuclear powers, the United States and Russia must lead by example, and that’s what we’re doing here today.
LISA MULLINS: President Obama said the accord will reduce US and Russian nuclear warheads and delivery systems by up to a third from current treaty obligations. The presidents of the United States and Russia also agreed on a variety of other issues. Russia, for instance, will allow the US military to fly troops and weapons across its territory to Afghanistan. And Washington and Moscow agreed to work together on the challenges posed by North Korea and Iran. President Obama said that is in everyone’s interest.
BARACK OBAMA: That’s why I’m pleased that we’ve agreed on a joint statement on cooperation on missile defense and a joint threat assessment of the ballistic missile challenges of the 21st century including those posed by Iran and North Korea.
LISA MULLINS: Despite the agreements announced today, Mr. Obama faces challenges in dealing with Russia, notably the two-headed nature of its power structure. President Medvedev is nominally the head of state, but former President, Vladimir Putin still exerts significant power as the country’s prime minister. The World’s Jeb Sharp reports.
JEB SHARP: In the days leading up to this week’s summit, statements from all sides have been scrutinized, and there was even a little ripple of apprehension and excitement when President Obama seemed to attempt to define the difference between Medvedev and Putin in this Associated Press interview.
BARACK OBAMA: Prime Minister Putin still has a lot of sway in Russia, and I think that it’s important that even as we move forward with President Medvedev, that Putin understands that the old Cold War approaches to US-Russian relations is outdated, that it’s time to move forward in a different direction. I think Medvedev understands that, I think Putin has one foot in the old ways of doing business and one foot in the new.
JEB SHARP: Putin brushed off the criticism.
PUTIN: [SPEAKS IN RUSSIAN]
JEB SHARP: [TRANSLATES WHAT PUTIN SAID] “We have a popular saying, which is not very literary.” Putin said. “We can’t stand legs akimbo. We are firmly standing on our feet and always look to the future.” Prime Minister Putin went on to say that he was looking forward to President Obama’s visit with warm feelings. President Obama will meet Putin for breakfast tomorrow, but today it was all about President Medvedev. The US and Russian presidents were business-like but also generous towards each other in their news conference today, as they rattled off areas of agreement and disagreement. President Obama was asked directly whether he trusted Mr. Medvedev. He said he did. He was also asked whether he had figured out who was in charge in Russia, Medvedev or Putin. He didn’t exactly answer.
BARACK OBAMA: My understanding is that President Medvedev is the president, Prime Minister Putin is the prime minister, and they allocate power in accordance with Russia’s form of government, in the same way that we allocate power in the United States. And, so, my interest is in dealing directly with my counterpart, the president, but also to reach out to Prime Minister Putin, and all other influential sectors in Russian society.
JEB SHARP: But in meeting with Prime Minister Putin, President Obama is actually doing a little more than just reaching out. Kathryn Stoner-Weiss of Stanford University says Mr. Obama actually has no choice but to meet with Mr. Putin, because he still holds so much power.
KATHRYN STONER-WEISS: I think it would be wrong to think that, first of all, there’s any departure in thinking between Putin and Medvedev, and that it’s important to go to the source of the thinking in Russian foreign and domestic policy, and I think it’s safe to say that the source is Mr. Putin.
JEB SHARP: But Stoner-Weiss says that knowledge hasn’t stopped the Americans from poking and prodding a little bit to see if there is any space at all between Medvedev and Putin.
KATHRYN STONER-WEISS: Testing to see whether or not there could be any way of creating some kind of schism in dealing with Mr. Medvedev, who’s viewed as a friendlier, easier partner, or bolstering him somehow domestically. Honestly, I don’t think there is much hope in [LAUGHS] pursuing that strategy. Mr. Putin chose, handpicked Mr. Medvedev as his successor, as President on purpose, and it’s because Medvedev is very, very dependent on Mr. Putin to stay in office.
JEB SHARP: Having said that, Stoner-Weiss thinks the meeting has gone relatively well, with modest goals on arms control and Afghanistan cooperation that have been largely met. Jeff Mankoff of the Council on Foreign Relations says the United States and Russia still have serious differences.
JEFF MANKOFF: They’re still very far apart on Iran. I think they’re going to be agreeing to disagree on the question of missile defense. And probably the most explosive issue, which is the status of the former Soviet Union and Russia’s influence over its one-time colonies or satellites, I think, is to a large degree insoluble.
JEB SHARP: To be sure, neither President Obama nor President Medvedev shied away from their differences today, but they did both vow to work hard to find more common ground. For The World, I’m Jeb Sharp.
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