AP Interview: Obama says Putin still has ‘outdated’ view of US-Russia relationship
By APThursday, July 2, 2009
Obama says Putin lives partly in past
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is describing Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin as someone who still has “one foot in the old ways of doing business and one foot in the new.”
He says one reason he’s meeting with Putin — as well as with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev (dih-MEE’-tree med-VYEH’-dyev) — during his upcoming visit to Moscow is that he wants Putin to know that “the old Cold War approaches” to relations with the United States are “outdated.”
Obama says Putin “still has sway” in Russia.
He also says the U.S. is developing a “very good relationship” with Medvedev, and that he’s looking for gains in nuclear arms reduction.
During an Associated Press interview Thursday, Obama rejected the idea that Russia is an obstacle in confronting North Korea and Iran. He said there’s been “good cooperation” in dealing with those two countries.
