No grounds for cold war with US, says Medvedev

RUSSIAN President Dmitry Medvedev said he saw no ideological grounds for a war with the US, cold or otherwise, despite strained relations with Washington and the Nato alliance.

Russia’s relations with the US were already at a post-Cold War low when they were further damaged by Russia’s war with US ally Georgia in August.

Russia has complained about what it says is a growing US military presence near its borders, but Mr Medvedev said last night that the Cold War was based on ideological differences between the Soviet Union and the Nato nations.

“We do not have such ideological differences around which a new cold or any other kind of war could start,” Mr Medvedev said after talks with Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero outside St Petersburg.

He also said the outcome of the US presidential election should not affect relations between Washington and Moscow. Regardless of who won the US presidency, “job No 1 is to deal with the situation in the economy — that’s what must be done”, he said.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin also continued Russia’s repeated verbal jabs at the US over the global financial crisis. “Everything that is happening today in the sphere of economics and finance began, as is known, in the US,” Mr Putin told a cabinet meeting, according to an official transcript.