Opinion: Poll: President Obama Goes To Russia
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President Obama travels to Russia today to give a speech (of course!) and meet with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. The topics likely to be covered include the START treaty (which expires in December), human rights, Iran, Afghanistan, North Korea, nonproliferation, the environment and even reserve currencies.
Both administrations seem willing to negotiate. ‘Pressing the reset button’ has been a phrase used within the Obama administration to describe how the president wants to approach U.S.-Russian relations. Medvedev said in a video blog that Russia is ‘ready to play our part’ in strengthening the relationship:
Now is not the time to say who is suffering more and who is stronger. Now is the time to unite our efforts. We simply must improve our relations in order to put our joint efforts into resolving the numerous problems facing the world today.
Although both administrations appear eager to be more amiable than in the recent past, there are still many issues where they disagree. NATO expansion in Eastern Europe and U.S. missile defense installations there are two of the sticking points. In a press briefing, Michael McFaul, Obama’s Senior Director for Russian and Eurasian Affairs, responded to these two most divisive topics in a decidedly non-amiable way:
We’re definitely not going to use the word ‘reassure’ in the way that we talk about these things. We’re not going to reassure or give or trade anything with the Russians regarding NATO expansion or missile defense.... We’re going to talk about them very frankly as we did in April when we first met with President Medvedev. And then we’re going to see if there are ways that we can have Russia cooperate on those things that we define as our national interests. So we don’t need the Russians, we don’t want to trade with them.
Newsweek’s Holly Bailey said one area the U.S. does need Russia is in Iran. The Russians can aid in pressuring the Iranians to end their development of Nuclear weapons. Interestingly, the Russians were the first to recognize the controversial re-election of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, while the rest of the world eyeballed the election skeptically.
With the next two days shaping to be crucial in U.S.-Russian diplomacy, we want to know what you think of Obama’s trip. Will it produce anything of substance? Do you fear Obama will concede too much? Could relations be strained further? Take our poll, leave a comment below, or do both!
-Kevin Patra