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Obama arrives in Russia, confident of progress
By Matt Spetalnick and Oleg Shchedrov
MOSCOW - President Barack Obama, opening a visit to Russia intended to mend strained relations, said on Monday he was confident of "extraordinary progress" if both sides worked hard together during his trip.
Officials and business leaders promised a host of deals covering arms control, Afghanistan, military cooperation and new investment during two days of scheduled talks in Moscow.
"We are confident that we can continue to build on the excellent discussions that we had in London," Obama told President Dmitry Medvedev at the start of talks in the Kremlin, referring to the first meeting the two leaders had in April.
"And that on a whole host of issues ... the United States and Russia have more in common than they have differences and that if we work hard in these next few days we can make extraordinary progress..."
Medvedev, smiling broadly as he d Obama in the Green Parlour of the Kremlin, said he hoped that "as a result of our conversations ... we will close a number of difficult pages in Russian-American relations and turn a new page."
A U.S. official told Reuters an agreed text of an outline deal on cutting Russian and U.S. nuclear arsenals would be put to Obama and Medvedev when they met.
Earlier Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov greeted Obama, his wife Michelle and their two daughters as they stepped from Air Force One at Moscow's Vnukovo airport under unseasonably cold, cloudy skies.
The arrival was not shown live on Russian television and there was generally little sign in Moscow of the "Obamamania" which has greeted the U.S. leader on some other foreign trips.
Obama's motorcade sped alone along a barricaded highway from the airport toward the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier for a wreath-laying ceremony. On the city's outskirts, small groups of onlookers smiled and waved but most looked on without reaction.
Business leaders traveling with Obama want to use the visit to boost trade and investment. Russian trade with the United States was just $36 billion in 2008, the same amount as with Poland, and investment has lagged that of European competitors.
"We hope that President Medvedev will be able to follow through on his continuous campaign to improve the rule of law," Andrew Somers, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Russia, told Reuters in an interview.
"I think this is a single biggest inhibitor to investment by U.S. companies, their concern about the rule of law."
Obama will also listen to the country's embattled democratic opposition, meet former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and make a major speech to Russian students.
But he faces a harder task in trying to achieve his avowed aim of a "reset" in relations between Washington and Moscow.
GEORGIA WAR HURT TIES
By Matt Spetalnick and Oleg Shchedrov
MOSCOW - President Barack Obama, opening a visit to Russia intended to mend strained relations, said on Monday he was confident of "extraordinary progress" if both sides worked hard together during his trip.
Officials and business leaders promised a host of deals covering arms control, Afghanistan, military cooperation and new investment during two days of scheduled talks in Moscow.
"We are confident that we can continue to build on the excellent discussions that we had in London," Obama told President Dmitry Medvedev at the start of talks in the Kremlin, referring to the first meeting the two leaders had in April.
"And that on a whole host of issues ... the United States and Russia have more in common than they have differences and that if we work hard in these next few days we can make extraordinary progress..."
Medvedev, smiling broadly as he d Obama in the Green Parlour of the Kremlin, said he hoped that "as a result of our conversations ... we will close a number of difficult pages in Russian-American relations and turn a new page."
A U.S. official told Reuters an agreed text of an outline deal on cutting Russian and U.S. nuclear arsenals would be put to Obama and Medvedev when they met.
Earlier Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov greeted Obama, his wife Michelle and their two daughters as they stepped from Air Force One at Moscow's Vnukovo airport under unseasonably cold, cloudy skies.
The arrival was not shown live on Russian television and there was generally little sign in Moscow of the "Obamamania" which has greeted the U.S. leader on some other foreign trips.
Obama's motorcade sped alone along a barricaded highway from the airport toward the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier for a wreath-laying ceremony. On the city's outskirts, small groups of onlookers smiled and waved but most looked on without reaction.
Business leaders traveling with Obama want to use the visit to boost trade and investment. Russian trade with the United States was just $36 billion in 2008, the same amount as with Poland, and investment has lagged that of European competitors.
"We hope that President Medvedev will be able to follow through on his continuous campaign to improve the rule of law," Andrew Somers, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Russia, told Reuters in an interview.
"I think this is a single biggest inhibitor to investment by U.S. companies, their concern about the rule of law."
Obama will also listen to the country's embattled democratic opposition, meet former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and make a major speech to Russian students.
But he faces a harder task in trying to achieve his avowed aim of a "reset" in relations between Washington and Moscow.
GEORGIA WAR HURT TIES
