THE TELEGRAPH: Barack Obama yesterday accused Vladimir Putin, the Russian prime minister, of "living in the past" and indulging in Cold War thinking on the eve of his first trip to Russia as US president.
Mr Obama described the former president, who remains the country's dominant political force, as someone who still has "one foot in the old ways of doing business and one foot in the new".
He said one reason he will meet Mr Putin, as well as Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian president, during his visit next week is that he wanted Mr Putin to know that "the old Cold War approaches" to relations with the United States were "outdated".
The US president told the Associated Press that he was developing a "very good relationship" with Mr Medvedev, whom he met in London at the G20 summit in April.
At the time, the two leaders readily agreed to move quickly to hammer out an accord for shrinking their countries' nuclear arsenals, a pact that would replace the 1991 Start I treaty that expires in December.
Both sides have been tight-lipped about preparatory talks, but negotiators are expected to narrow differences enough to allow the leaders to possibly announce a framework for a deal next week.
However, also at stake is the credibility of the Obama administration's pledge to "press the reset button" on US-Russia relations, which sank to a post-Cold War low under George W Bush and Mr Putin.
Mr Obama's forthright remarks were a strong signal that he expects Moscow to match his commitment to improving the tone in the two sides' conversation. >>> Alex Spillius in Washington | Thursday, July 02, 2009
