Editorial: Moscow visit a fruitful start

Opinion

Russia was always bound to be a ticklish problem for President Barack Obama. The hardball approach of his predecessor, George W. Bush, created a mistrust of American intentions inside the Kremlin and among the Russian people.

This is manifested in Russians' continuing support for Prime Minister Vladimir Putin who, as President, was seen as preserving their crumbling nation's prestige in the face of Washington's persistent belittling of it. When, for example, Moscow objected to the United States' plan to erect a missile defence shield in Eastern Europe, President Bush said it was none of its business.

The eastwards expansion of Nato added to the rancour between the two countries, as did Russia's war with neighbouring Georgia. This has left Mr Obama with much to do to press the "reset button" with Russia. His mission to Moscow, the first by a US leader in seven years, represented a promising start. Above all, he appreciated that Russian hearts would be won only if the importance of their country was acknowledged. This would help, also, to develop the stature of President Dmitry Medvedev, a leader of the same generation as his American counterpart and less prone to what Mr Obama had described as Mr Putin's "old Cold War approach".

The US leader, therefore, made a point of asking Russia to host the follow-up conference to a nuclear security summit that he plans to convene next year. This implied Moscow was a pivotal player in preventing nuclear proliferation, an issue highlighted by Mr Obama two months ago in a speech in Prague. Such may have been self-evident given that the US and Russia possess more than 90 per cent of the world's nuclear weapons between them. But acknowledging as much slipped from the picture during the Bush presidency.

Mr Obama left Moscow with the thrust of his stance on nuclear weapons reinforced by a preliminary agreement for the US and Russia to reduce their nuclear stockpiles by as much as a third. This is designed to be part of a replacement pact for the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, which expires in December. But progress on this could be compromised by the US pursuit of the missile defence shield, a Bush-era project that is being reviewed by the Obama Administration. Russia has insisted missile defence and arms limitation must be linked.

The risk posed by Iran is the stated reason for building the shield in Poland and the Czech Republic. Removal or diminution of that threat would, in theory, render it redundant. The Russians could, themselves, go some way towards achieving this end by using their ties with Tehran to pressure the Iranians to give up their nuclear weapon ambitions. If the White House were to receive such help, it could open the door to rapid progress on arms limitation.

One fruit of Mr Obama's mission was the granting of Russian permission to transport arms across its land and airspace into Afghanistan for use by forces fighting the Taleban. That will ease supply difficulties.

The defeat of the Taleban is very much in Moscow's interest, just as it was 30 years ago when fear of Muslim insurgency on its southern flank led the then Soviet Union to invade Afghanistan. There, it came up against and was finally defeated by fundamentalists armed, ironically, by the US.

It is clear the two Presidents share an ambition to be co-operative and to build on the steps taken this week. Further impetus for that will come from a reduction of Russian suspicion of the US and its motives. The attitude of Mr Putin, still probably the most powerful voice in Moscow, will play an important part. If he is on board, years of suspicion could be banished to history in relatively quick time.