Obama

The day after he announced that Belarus would recognise the breakaway republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, President Lukashenko has declared his wish for improved relations with the US.
 
In a birthday note to President Barack Obama, Lukashenko stated that "Through joint efforts we could bring Belarusian-U.S. relations to a level that meets the interests of the people of both countries."
 

In Moscow's strongest public statement yet on the issue, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday that an agreement would be reached soon on a landmark nuclear arms reduction treaty with the United States."The remaining questions, I hope, will be resolved rather promptly when the negotiations resume, and they will resume before the beginning of February, I think," Lavrov has told reporters. His words suggest that an agreement is imminent between the two powers on a successor to the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I).
 

The United States is absolutely right to reject Vladimir Putin's criticism of the proposed missile defence shield. Talk of "maintaining the balance" is misleading: Putin simply does not want his country to lose the one playable card it holds.
 

Following President Obama's decision to scrap the proposed European Missile Defence Shield, the Kremlin has reportedly dropped plans to deploy ballistic missiles in the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad.
 

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has issued a strong defence of Iran against the threat of force or new sanctions imposed by the West.

 
President Obama has announced the scrapping of the controversial European Missile Defence Shield. Following a "re-assessment" of Iran's nuclear capability, the shield is no longer deemed necessary. Russia, said the President, has posed no threat, and was not the real reason behind the programmes conception. Defence Secretary Robert Gates speculated that in the future, sanctions may be a more realistic means of influencing Iran.