Obama in bid to pin down deal with Russia

US PRESIDENT Barack Obama will visit Russia today in the hope of reaching agreements on military transit and weapons reductions to revive a relationship that last year plunged to a post-Cold War low.

Obama is to hold several hours of meetings with President Dmitry Medvedev but his shorter breakfast encounter with Vladimir Putin tomorrow could yet be chilly after he remarked that the prime minister remained stuck in the past.

Both sides have vowed to press the “reset button” after Russia’s war with Georgia last year capped a series of diplomatic rows. But tensions still remain, most notably on missile defence.

“The summit will be billed as a success,” said Dmitry Trenin, director of the Carnegie Centre in Moscow. “The question is which way from the summit, whether the summit leads to a relationship that will gradually undo the real problems.”

Russian officials have said Medvedev and Obama will sign a deal allowing the United States to transport military supplies for operations in Afghanistan across Russian territory. Previously, Washington has only been allowed by Moscow to transport non-lethal supplies by rail. The new deal should allow the United States to transport military supplies across Russia by air.

The two countries are also set to sign a declaration setting up the framework for the renewal of the Cold War-era Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), which is due to expire in early December.

However, the Interfax news agency quoted a high-ranking Russian foreign ministry source as saying officials from the two sides have yet to agree the wording of the document, with time running out ahead of Obama’s arrival.

The Obama administration has yet to say whether it will implement a plan devised by his predecessor George W Bush to install missile defence facilities in the Czech Republic and Poland which has infuriated Russia. Moscow believes the missile shield is aimed against its territory, but Washington has insisted it is designed to counter the threat posed by Iran.

Medvedev said in an interview with Italian media yesterday that, unlike the previous administration, Obama was prepared to discuss the issue.

“We are completely capable of finding a sensible outcome,” he said. “Russia is not against such defence systems. But they should not be aimed against a very prominent nuclear country like Russia. We think such decisions put us in a difficult situation.”

Obama said such a defence shield was aimed at protecting the United States and Europe from Iran “and not against an attack from Russia”. “Such thinking is a legacy of the Cold War.”

The shadow of the past was also underlined when Obama stated in an interview recently he believed “Putin has one foot in the old ways of doing business and one foot in the new”.

He said he had “a very good relationship” with the youthful Medvedev, promp-ting speculation he was seeking to divide Russia’s tight ruling tandem.