Obama Chides Putin, Notes That its Time to Move on From Cold War

President Barack Obama, recently returned from a Moscow summit, noted yesterday that former Russian President Vladimir Putin "still has a lot of sway" in Russia, but that he still has a penchant for a line of thinking more appropriate to the Cold War days. Obama will meet next week with current Russian President Dmitry Medvedev as well as Putin, and noted ahead of the meeting, "I think that it’s important that even as we move forward with President Medvedev that Putin understands that the old Cold War approaches to U.S.-Russian relationships is outdated. Putin has one foot in the old ways of doing business and one foot in the new."

Obama also spoke recently about a variety of issues, including other matter of international diplomacy, where North Korea has been in the news of late. Obama noted with optimism that he felt that an international agreement could be achieved to take tougher action against North Korea if that rogue nation continues defying global demands to dismantle its nuclear weapons and stop production. Obama specifically wants to amend an agreement to allow the use of military force to board and inspect ships that are suspected of carrying banned weapons.

Said Obama, "In international diplomacy, people tend to want to go in stages. There potentially is room for more later." Ahead of next week’s meeting with the Russian president, Obama noted that a primarily topic of discussion will be talks on a strategic arms reduction treaty to take the place of the current one, which will expire in December.