Obama To Putin: The Old Cold War Approach To Diplomacy Is "Outdated"

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is describing Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin as someone who still has "one foot in the old ways of doing business and one foot in the new."

He says one reason he's meeting with Putin _ as well as with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev (dih-MEE'-tree med-VYEH'-dyev) _ during his upcoming visit to Moscow is that he wants Putin to know that "the old Cold War approaches" to relations with the United States are "outdated."

Obama says Putin "still has sway" in Russia.

He also says the U.S. is developing a "very good relationship" with Medvedev, and that he's looking for gains in nuclear arms reduction.

During an Associated Press interview Thursday, Obama rejected the idea that Russia is an obstacle in confronting North Korea and Iran. He said there's been "good cooperation" in dealing with those two countries.

Comments

[ccpostman]

A picture is worth a thousand words.

http://www.huntersmark.com/_Media/putin_large.jpeg

[SiberianRat]

Sarah Palin will get all tingly over that one!

[GGinCA]

How many times has VVP accused those in the west who might dare to have a different way of seeing things of being Cold War thinkers? Sauce for the goose.

[Bartolomeu]

http://www.myspace.com/472908867

http://cabindas.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/2008-09-23-can-angola-coerce-the-united-nations.pdf

President Obama is 100% right in urging Russia to realize that the "Old Cold War Approach to Diplomacy is Outdated". Of course, there are those who still fear Russia, and there are facts that dispose us to understand them. Thanks to Russia and other protagonists of the 1955 Bandung Conference, all over the world, hundreds of millions of people have exercised their right to self-determination, and several of once-colonized African territories have gained independence. Nevertheless, we all have to recognize the vital role that the United States of America had played in the decolonization process of the African countries. The valuable Charter of the United Nations results from the US benevolence! Russia, as well as the West, made a lot of mistakes in Africa. Thus, we would like Russia's President, together with US President Obama, to give Angola’s President a clear message that human rights, international law, and the decolonization of Cabinda are a priority in Russia and the United States’ relations with Angola.

Bartolomeu Capita
Chairman of the Cabindan National Movement

[LMPE]

Cold War diplomacy was outdated even before it started.

[Macready]

you are right LMPE . . . and the world is so interconnected . . the only diplomacy should be the diplomacy of mutual co-operation and peace .. the legacy of war only breeds more war and more antagonism . . . .

[Gripen]

Is this a projection, for US forigne policies have been very cold war since GWB got in office and i havent seen any changes yet with Obama so far.

US still try build a misssile sheild in eastern europe, US and NATO do provokative trainning drills in Georgia and so on, so this is still coldwar politics and it seems it is the way USA wants to have it.

[NewYorkStateofMind]

and Russia running rampant over a satellite state is not "cold war politics?"

[Gripen]

If you talk about Georgia so was it them who started the conflict, but so was the president there placed in power by USA and handed Israelian advisors.

Russia has acted rationally on being provoked, i bet USA would have done same things if Russia wanted to place advanced weapons in Mexico and placed a russian friendly president in power there.

So wake up and cut through the propoganda BS and see for your own eyes, when news changes after 3 days and start pump out a diffrent story, something is wrong, it was that wich made my wife realize US media are totally false and lying, it is all a propoganda machine for the US goverment, it is no journalism left, it is all infoteinment.

[NewYorkStateofMind]

Putin is a KGB agent and always will be

His thinking and his loyalty all revolve around the soviet union regardless of its current state

[MikeRdg]

And doesn't knowing that Putin is a old KGB agent scare the heck out of you, then ask Mitt Romney why so many Mormons are in that business which was started way back, when with Putin old Russian collegue? What Romney in the White House? He' ll have a ton more Russian investments.

[MikeRdg]

Seriously ask Mitt, his brother was involved,

[SiberianRat]

Um, and you're the ultimate authority on this because....?

[NewYorkStateofMind]

are you a simpleton?

It's an opinion I stated. You obviously don't agree. Are YOU the "ultimate authority"

let me explain what the internet is. You see sometimes there are news articles that invite comments. Those comments involve a lot of opinions.

The adults exchange their opinions and often debate.

[julianne]

It's not Putin's fault he aligned with China and moved militarily into our hemisphere. He was stiff-armed, threatened, and had some of his citizens killed by U.S. foreign agents for the last 8 years. Before that, America supported the looting of his country after the Soviet Union tore down the Berlin Wall. Putin rightly figures that - Obama might be o.k. - but in a few years the American people will again vote for some feral, lying, theiving trash fronting for militarist corporate fascism. Nothing Obama has shown reflects that he is seizing control of our nation's amoral, privatized economy and foreign policy agendas. Putin has to defend his country's interests from a minority of America's historically powerful, arrogant, well armed Americans whom Obama has just refinanced with our tax dollars.

[MaximMaximus]

It's good to have an intelligent president who does not think that he can see Putin's soul by looking in his eyes.

[kev1000]

Amen.

[Gripen]

Obama may be intelligent but he still just do as his puppetmasters tells him to do and i think they still live in a cold war era still.

If he really wanted to go away from coldwar politics so would he scrap the missile sheild in eastern europe, disband NATO and stop military exercises at russian borders.

[NewYorkStateofMind]

disband NATO?

and who would benefit from that besides Russia, North Korea, China, and a few other "not so free" countries?

pretty naive thinking to suggest that

[Merckx]

Obama has puppetmasters? Do tell. Inquiring minds want to know.

[jackbutler5555]

The best that President of the United States can do is to quit NATO. There are other members of NATO, you know. What would be the net gain of the U.S. to quit NATO?

[Schnides]

Wow, all the Obama supporters are no where to be found on this article.

[cered]

What's to be said?

Keep up the good work President Obama.

[tangerinesong]

Are you kidding me?

Sure, bring that kid Obama up from little league, he'll be pitching against the Dodgers this evening.

Give me a break.

[cered]

Maybe you forget Russia slapping Bush with a trout with the Georgia incident right? Or are you one of the Republicans that thought Atlanta, GA was in trouble?

[jubei]

Right and Sarah Palin said she can see russia from her living room window and Mccain said that were all Georgians!!

[ThatOne4Me]

lol cered

[woodwakr]

Right. Too bad he isn't as well-prepared for the job as Bush was, huh?

Oh, wait...

[MikeRdg]

Putin sure does have sway! Russia is becoming an energy power, and will be calling the shots in Europe, if Europe wants to stay warm in the winter.

[NewYorkStateofMind]

Russia has been an "energy power" for a long time for the europeans and they have flexed their muscle more than once already.

This is one of the most important issues facing europe since Russia is ruled by thu-gs

[Hitchcockcameo]

That is why Europe is moving forward strongly with alternative energy. If you're a Republican and are serious about weakening Russia (and Chavez in Venezuela for that matter), you might consider supporting the world-wide drive for alternative energy (whether you believe in the environmental aspect or not).

[oxi]

Obama can shove it, he has one foot with the old ways of Bush and he has the nerve to point at the Russian Federation?

NATO: talk about cold war old relics!

[ZenCrusader]

yes he does - he is right about Putin - you sound incredibly naive about the kgb

[MikeRdg]

Uhmmmmmmmmm, no longer the KGB, it is the FSB now, changed names when the Soviet Union fell, and all the KGB agents came to American.

[CanHandleTheTruth]

If Obama can cut to the chase and directly address the true decision-maker in Russia -- namely, Vladimir Putin -- then President Medvedev should be able to do the same thing and directly address his points to David Rockefeller....

[AhnAmuru]

That you Kim Philby?

[GhiaccioPronto]

Hmmm, so he threw a stone before he even left home?

[AhnAmuru]

Aldrich Ames?