RA’s Daily Russia News Blast – March 9th, 2009
TODAY: US and Russia ministers’ meeting goes smoothly, Lavrov praises ‘wonderful’ relationship; Poland says US won’t give up on missile defense; mainstream media worried about unrest; heroin; oligarchs on the way out? Pro-Kremlin youth pin-up.
The first one-on-one meeting between US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov saw the symbolic presentation of a box containing a reset button. Lavrov afterwards described his relationship with Clinton as ‘wonderful‘, but, says the Washington Post, it seems unlikely that the US is going to give up on missile defense, and Poland’s president says he still believes that the US will honor its agreement to build a missile defense base in his country. Russia has set out its demands for a nuclear treaty with the US that will replace the previous START agreement. Lavrov says Russia wants to reduce nuclear warheads, regulate strategic delivery systems, and prohibit ‘the weaponization of outer space’.