President Obama is in Moscow in hopes of accomplishing several agendas. He has met some in the first day, but there is worrying lack of progress when it comes to Iran. He is on track with soothing Russian concerns of American weapons around her neighbors, but success on that is issue is yet to be determined.

We told you this before President Obama left for Moscow. He has confirmed and sealed the deal to transport weapons and soldiers across Russian land into Afghanistan and agreed to slash nuclear arsenals with Russia. Thought that was very much expected, it is still a very good job done by the President’s negotiating team. I do not think that this would have been done in President Bush’s term.

The order of nuclear piles and corporation with Pakistan and Afghanistan were some areas where both President Obama and President Medvedev seemed to agree on. That was something that I was happy to see, but still wonder what Prime Minister Vladimir Putin would be thinking. He could hijack the whole thing whenever he wanted.

Other than that, there are some areas that worry me. The most outstanding of which is Iran. Unlike North Korea, which is also a close friend of the Russians, Kremlin and Washington are not on the same page when it comes to the Iranian agenda. Most recently, Kremlin had acknowledged the latest Iranian elections as legitimate, even though many people around the world did not.

Russia is the best party that can negotiate in Iran. For one, they are neighbors. Proximity is something that no diplomacy can ignore. More importantly is that Russia is the only country that has offered a solution to the Iranians on the nuclear issue that many in the world thought was very fair. I feel that the Russian solution of building a nuclear power reactor on Russian soil and transporting electricity to Iran was by far the best deal that came up yet.

President Obama is trying to soothe Russian nerves about America having weapons in Poland and Czech Republic. The Russians fear that the missiles would threaten them. The effort from the President was visible, but I think the results of that would only be out today. Prime Minister Putin too may have a large say in this matter.

President Obama is due to make a speech in Moscow’s New Economic school That is one to watch. If he does that well, he might not have won over Russia skepticism, but at least he would have diminished their fear of America surrounding it.

This speech is not going to be as easy as his other speeches, and a true test to his speech skills. He is not on a ground that loves him a lot. He is on a ground that is nonchalant to what he says. If he could get them chanting, the way he did in Cairo, he would go down in the history books as one of the greatest orators the world has ever seen.

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President Obama is going to Moscow for a summit on arms control. Many are praying that President Obama and President Medvedev would come out a deal on nuclear weapons. But lurking in the shadows is Russia’s Prime Minister Vladmir Putin.

President Obama is going to take another round the world trip next week. But it is his work to be done in Moscow that is hogging all the headlines. President Obama figurines are flying off the shelves. The public await him eagerly with free shot dedicated to his phrase “Yes-We-Can.”.

The politics though is rather murky. President Obama does not want to make the same mistake that President Bush did. He cannot trust the Russians much as long as Prime Minister Putin is still around. That is the first element of the dance.

There is also reports out that a deal has already been worked out between them to reduce the stock of deployed nuclear weapons and the permission to allow US to ship weapons across Russian’s air space to Afghanistan. No one is confirming this or denying this. But I think that this deal has to be sealed now. It would make people jittery is it does not go through.

Salvos are already being fired though. President Obama suggested to Associated Press that President Medvedev understands that the cold war is over but Prime Minister Putin does not. “Prime Minister Putin still has a lot of sway in Russia and 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 the U.S. – Russia relations are out dated.” – President Obama

A Russian diplomat countered this claim that President Obama is not fully informed about Russia. That to me is the shot to the American President what Republicans mantra all along : President Obama is naive.

The biggest stumbling block though is nothing but trust. Neither side seems to trust each other. Russia does not like being encircled with American bases at her borders. They also do not like many of her neighbors becoming NATO members due to its “one for all all for one” rule. America does not trust Russia and the Georgian War last year seems to vindicate it.

Something that has not been mentioned is Iran. Washington wants Moscow’s assistance in dealing with her Caspian Sea neighbor. Russia’s instant recognition of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s victory in an obviously botched election is not helping relation either.

To me, something positive is already out of this with the lowering of nuclear stockpiles and the permission to allow US to ship weapons across Russian’s air space to Afghanistan. I think that there is really nothing much to lose, but nothing much to gain either.

Suggested reading : Reuters, CNN and Voice of America.

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