WASHINGTON: President Dmitri Medvedev of Russia expressed hope over the weekend that President-elect Barack Obama's election would improve relations that have soured under President George W. Bush, but he remained unwavering on the issues that have most starkly divided the countries in recent years. Medvedev, in Washington for the first time since his election last spring, reiterated Russia's opposition to the expansion of NATO and vowed that Russia would not reverse its recognition of two separatist regions in Georgia, South Ossetia and Abkhazia, after the war there in August. He also repeated his threat, first made the day after Obama was elected, to deploy missiles in Kaliningrad if the United States moved ahead with plans to build missile defense systems in Poland and the Czech Republic. As he did in France on Friday, however, he said he was prepared to hold talks on the issue. "There is no trust in the Russia-U.S. relations, the trust we need," Medvedev said, speaking before the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington after participating in the summit meeting on the financial crisis Saturday that brought together the leaders of 20 countries. "Therefore we have great aspirations for the new administration."
WASHINGTON: President Dmitri Medvedev of Russia expressed hope over the weekend that President-elect Barack Obama's election would improve relations that have soured under President George W. Bush, but he remained unwavering on the issues that have most starkly divided the countries in recent years.
Medvedev, in Washington for the first time since his election last spring, reiterated Russia's opposition to the expansion of NATO and vowed that Russia would not reverse its recognition of two separatist regions in Georgia, South Ossetia and Abkhazia, after the war there in August.
He also repeated his threat, first made the day after Obama was elected, to deploy missiles in Kaliningrad if the United States moved ahead with plans to build missile defense systems in Poland and the Czech Republic. As he did in France on Friday, however, he said he was prepared to hold talks on the issue.
"There is no trust in the Russia-U.S. relations, the trust we need," Medvedev said, speaking before the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington after participating in the summit meeting on the financial crisis Saturday that brought together the leaders of 20 countries. "Therefore we have great aspirations for the new administration."
"There is no trust in the Russia-U.S. relations, the trust we need,"
how many times did we promise not to expand NATO beyond a certain point, then break our promise?
i know they broke them too... but he's right. ~Government budget deficits are not nearly as dangerous as the deficits we have created in vital and complex natural systems.~ Naomi Klein.
