US Rice, Gates In Moscow For Missile Defense Talks - AFP

[maddezmom]

Source: AFP

MOSCOW (AFP)--Top U.S. officials Condoleezza Rice and Robert Gates arrived in Moscow Monday for sensitive talks on missile defense with President Vladimir Putin and his successor in waiting Dmitry Medvedev.

The talks were a first chance since Russia's presidential polls for Secretary of State Rice and Defense Secretary Gates to gauge the transition process in Russia and the extent to which Putin will continue to wield influence.

Going into the talks, Gates suggested little room for flexibility on missile defense, the key dispute between the two sides, saying he wanted Russia to give ground.

Moscow vehemently opposes U.S. plans to place a missile defense radar in the Czech Republic and interceptor missiles in Poland, seeing them as a security threat and part of efforts to encircle Russia.



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[bushmeister0]

1. That ought to be an interesting meeting.

Remember Putin's cannibalism comments a few years ago?

"We all know that African countries used to have a tradition of eating their own adversaries."

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article108581.ece

I'm thinking the Russians really don't take Condi too seriously. That's why they're sending Gates, probably. Oh, but she's the big Soviet expert, right, the one who was taken by surprise by the collapse of the Soviet Union.