Obama meets Putin
Barack Obama, meeting Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin for the first time, voiced confidence today that Washington and Moscow could improve relations with “mutual respect and consultation”.
Mr Putin told his guest: “With you, we link our hopes for the furtherance of relations between our two countries.”
The prime minister greeted Mr Obama for talks on a clear, sunny morning in Nova Ogaryovo, just outside Moscow, where Mr Putin’s white and yellow traditional Russian-style mansion is situated amid a forest of pine, birch and linden.
The body language was positive for both Mr Obama and Putin, who had traded sharp barbs in the days preceding the US president’s flight to Moscow.
As the two appeared for a picture-taking session before commencing their private talks, Mr Obama told Mr Putin he “appreciated you taking the time to meet with me”.
For his part, Mr Putin noted that US-Russian relations had been marked by periods of chill, as well as times of relative warmth. And he said he was “glad to have the opportunity to get acquainted” with Mr Obama, who is making his first trip to Russia.
The visit came a day after Mr Obama held talks with President Dmitry Medvedev and they agreed that the two countries would seek by the end of the year end to cut their nuclear stockpiles by up to a third.
Mr Obama told Mr Putin he thought he had had “excellent discussions” yesterday with Mr Medvedev.
But Mr Obama also said he recognised that “we may not agree on everything”.
Mr Putin’s remarks seemed particularly cordial given his tart response last week to a comment that Mr Obama made about him in an interview.
Mr Obama said last Thursday that Mr Putin still had one foot in the Cold War of doing things, and the prime minister retorted that he thought that observation to be quite a stretch.
