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President Obama concluded a three-day visit to Russia yesterday, during which he met with both President Medvedev and Prime Minister Putin. The high level summit was considered significant in improving US-Russia relations in the aftermath of last year’s Russian war in Georgia. Following from his April speech in Prague in which Obama expressed his “commitment to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons,” the American president pushed for nuclear arms reduction during the US-Russia summit. On Monday, Medvedev and Obama agreed to reduce their nuclear stockpiles by a quarter to a third, which in the context of previous agreements is modest. Also on the agenda were economic relations between the two countries. According to a recent World Economic Forum report, Russia’s economy is one of the most closed economies in the world. But President Medvedev this week reiterated Russia’s bid to join the World Trade Organization. Russians however, are concerned about the “Buy American” clause in Obama’s economic stimulus package. Obama’s stated goal was to “push the reset button” on relations and it is arguable whether that indeed happened. U.S./Russia relations severely deteriorated under former President Bush, particularly over issues of NATO expansion into former Soviet territories, and cooperation in the “war on terror.”

GUEST: Boris Kagarlitsky, Director of the Institute for Globalization and Social Movements in Moscow