RA’s Daily Russian News Blast – Nov 16, 2009
TODAY: Medvedev meets Obama in Singapore on sidelines of Apec, discusses Iran and START; what happened to Russia’s US-Afghan supply route?; more law enforcement officers weighing in on corruption; Putin didn’t attend hip-hop party to boost popularity, insists Peskov; Moscow advertisers refuse controversial campaigns; Bulbov released, Vitaly Ginzburg has died.
President Dmitry Medvedev’s address at the Apec summit in Singapore ‘took a wait-and-see approach on specifics‘, reportedly largely echoing his state-of-the-nation address and ensuing Economist piece. Medvedev met his U.S. counterpart, Barack Obama, on the sidelines of the summit, where the two said they hoped to strike a new deal for arms cuts under a new START pact by the end of the year, and agreed that ‘time is running out‘ for diplomacy on the matter of Iran’s nuclear program. Although Sergei Prikhodko, Medvedev’s chief foreign policy adviser, is forecasting ‘difficult‘ discussions with the EU after the Lisbon Treaty comes into force, he is ‘satisfied at the moment by the quality of open and pragmatic dialogue with the U.S. administration.‘ ‘For all of the lofty sentiments expressed at high-profile summit meetings, actual change has never been easy to deliver,‘ says the New York Times, wondering what happened to the U.S. Afghan supply route agreement with Russia.