Obama and Putin seek better deal together

Mr Obama was wrapping up a two-day stay in Russia, during which he and President Dmitry Medvedev said they were determined by year’s end to negotiate a new nuclear arms treaty that would slash both country’s arsenals by about one-third.

Throughout his young presidency, Mr Obama has kept to a singular message about US-Russian relations, insisting that both nations must get beyond the kind of thinking that gripped Moscow and Washington during the decades of the Cold War. He reprised that today.

“It is difficult to forge a lasting partnership between former adversaries,” Mr Obama said. “But I believe on the fundamental issues that will shape this century, Americans and Russians share common interests that form a basis for cooperation.”

Before leaving for Russia, Mr Obama had said that Mr Putin had “one foot in the old ways of doing business and one foot in the new.” After breakfast with the Russian leader, he said: “I found him to be tough, smart, shrewd, very unsentimental, very pragmatic. And on areas where we disagree, like Georgia, I don’t anticipate a meeting of the minds anytime soon.”

Mr Putin, the former Russian president, also spoke warmly of his country’s hopes for improved US ties with Mr Obama in the White House.

“With you we link all our hopes for the furtherance of relations between our two countries,” the former KGB official said, sitting next to Mr Obama.

Mr Obama used his speech to further define his view of the United States’ place in the world and, specifically, to argue that the US shares compelling interests with Russia.

His upbeat comments showed his determination to turn around public opinion in Russia, where polls show people are wary of the United States and take a sceptical view of Mr Obama himself.

He said Russian and US interests largely overlap in halting the spread of nuclear weapons, confronting violent extremists, ensuring economic prosperity, advancing the rights of people and fostering cooperation without jeopardising sovereignty.

But he also sprinkled in challenges to Russia, particularly in the area of democracy. US officials are wary of Russia’s increasingly hard-line stand on dissent.

“By no means is America perfect,” Mr Obama said. But he also said: “Independent media have exposed corruption at all levels of business and government. Competitive elections allow us to change course. ... If our democracy did not advance those rights, I as a person of African ancestry wouldn’t be able to address you as an American citizen, much less a president.”

Mr Obama said the US will not try to impose any kind of governing system on another country. But he argued for democratic values “because they are moral, and also because they work”.

On Georgia and Ukraine – two nations that have sought Nato membership to the chagrin of neighbouring Russia – Mr Obama tried a diplomatic touch. He defended the steps nations must take to join the alliance, adding: “Nato seeks collaboration with Russia, not confrontation.”

Before the speech Mr Obama held what the White House characterised as a “good meeting” with former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev.