Meeting in Moscow: a step forward at last.

In Vienna, in 1961, at their one Presidential meeting, the young John F. Kennedy was overwhelmed and humiliated by Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev. He was lambasted for his lack of support for states seeking to free themselves from the grip of the colonial powers, and strongly warned about the folly of surrounding the Soviet Union with military bases. The US president had been warned by his advisors against the meeting, and immediately afterwards, Paul Nitze, the US assistant Secretary of Defence, described the meeting as "just a disaster". The President's poor performance and perceived weaknesses were to have dire consequences: within months Khrushchev ordered work to begin on the Berlin wall, and the deployment of missiles to Cuba in 1962 brought the world to the brink of war.

With this debacle in mind, President George W. Bush, speaking to the Knesset in May 2008 warned against negotiating with America's adversaries, describing such a process as "appeasement". With this in mind, the events of 1961 must have been in the thoughts of another young President, Barack Obama, as he arrived in Moscow for talks this week.

US-Russia relations are generally agreed to have sunk to their lowest ebb since the Cold war during the final years of the Bush Presidency. His adversarial cold war mindset, however, contrasted strongly with that of Obama, who since taking office has vowed to improve the relationship. His opposite number, President Dmitri Medvedev, also appears to have adopted a different stance to his own predecessor. In a recent interview with the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, he referred to Obama as "my colleague".

There are of course questions over Medvedev's Presidency, and whether it is he or Prime Minister Putin who truly holds the reigns of power. Russians themselves are sceptical about the extent of Medvedev's power. In a survey by the Levada Centre polling group in early 2009, only 12% of those polled believed that he was really running the country. 34% believed that Putin was still running Russia from the office of Prime Minister. Interestingly, when asked to name politicians they trusted, 36% named Medvedev, whilst 48% named Putin. But Medvedevism does seem to be emerging, and the President seems to miss no chance to explain that the Prime Minister is in charge of the economy, which is failing, whilst he is responsible for Russia's future.

Indeed, whilst Obama took time for a breakfast meeting with Putin at his dacha, he has described him, just days before, as "having one foot in the old way of doing business and one foot in the new". Obama stated confidently that it was time to move forward, and that Medvedev "understands that". The signal could not be stronger - Obama can, and will, do business with Medvedev.

The meeting of the two men resulted in a highly significant agreement on the progression of the replacement of the START arms treaty, which dates from 1991. A legally binding treaty is expected to be concluded later this year. Agreements were also reached on Afghanistan and Iran, although it the latter case it is in Russia's strategic interests to keep that country isolated from the west, thus keeping Europe dependent on gas, which Iran possesses massive reserves. If the price of this is a nuclear armed Iran, then let us be under no illusions: the Kremlin can easily live with that if it has to. Two highly significant concessions from the Russians are support for US/UN position on North Korea, and an agreement to allow the transit of US troops and military equipment through Russia en route to Afghanistan.

It is highly reassuring that despite Obama's refusal to link the proposed missile defence shield to the talks, or to compromise his position on Georgian sovereignty, Medvedev felt able to proceed, and the outcome is so promising. Putin, however, speaking to the Moscow News three days before the summit, was unable to move away from the issues, stating that "If we see something new, if our American partners abandon, for example, building new military complexes in Europe, abandon plans for anti-missile defence... it will be a big step forward," It appears that the Prime Minister does indeed have one foot firmly planted in the old ways.