Russian president optimistic about ties with US

MOSCOW: President Dmitry Medvedev said he hopes Russia's relations with the United States improve after President-elect Barack Obama takes office, according to an interview released Thursday.

Moscow's relations with Washington have been strained by disputes over US missile defense plans and Russia's war with Georgia in August.

But Medvedev dismissed suggestions that the chill could lead to a new Cold War, and said he expects the new U.S. administration ``to take constructive, reasonable stance, to show willingness to compromise on the most difficult issues.''

``What we have recently heard from Washington makes me feel moderately optimistic,'' he said, without elaborating, in an interview with Indian Broadcasting Corporation Doordarshan that was posted on the Kremlin Web site Thursday.
Medvedev and Obama spoke by telephone last month, but the details of the conversation were not released.

The day after Obama's election victory, Medvedev had warned that Russia would respond to the US plans for missile defense sites in Europe by deploying short-range missiles to its westernmost region of Kaliningrad, near Poland.

But Medvedev and his predecessor, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, quickly softened their posture, saying Russia would only make the move if the US goes ahead with placing components of the proposed missile defense shield in the former Soviet satellite of the Czech Republic and Poland.

Both Putin and Medvedev voiced hope that Obama's administration would scrap the plan, saying it threatens Russia's nuclear forces. President Bush's administration has insisted it poses no threat to Russia and is meant to protect Europe from possible attacks from the Middle East.

Medvedev said there was no ideological ground for a new Cold War. ``Today we share the same values. We need only to ensure that these values are understood in the same way.'' He said Western warnings of possible sanctions against Russia after the war with Georgia had ``led to nothing and could not lead to anything.''

The US and the European Union had criticized Russia for disproportionate use of force during the war, and for recognizing Georgia's breakaway regions as independent states afterward.

``In the present-day world, any attempts to isolate a country _ especially such country as Russia _ are undoubtedly doomed to failure,'' he said. ``There is no sense and no use in talking about any new 'Cold War' and another iron curtain.''