Obama to have talk with Medvedev
MOSCOW, January 20 (RIA Novosti) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev could talk by telephone with Barack Obama soon after his inauguration as the 44th U.S. president, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday.
Obama, the first black president of the United States, is to be sworn in later on Tuesday.
"I hope the controversial problems in our relations, such as missile defense, the expediency of NATO expansion ... will be resolved on the basis of pragmatism, without the ideological assessment the outgoing administration had," Sergei Lavrov told journalists.
"We are ready for that, our president confirmed it in a telephone conversation with Barack Obama immediately after his election. I think additional phone and other contacts between our leaders will take place very soon," he said.
Lavrov earlier said Moscow was hoping Obama would review Russia's proposal for a collective Russian-U.S.-European missile defense network.
"We have noticed that President-elect Obama is willing to take a break on the issue of missile defense ... and to evaluate its effectiveness and cost efficiency," he said on Friday.
Moscow has strongly opposed the possible deployment by the United States of 10 interceptor missiles in Poland and a radar in the Czech Republic as a threat to its security and nuclear deterrent. Washington says the system is needed to protect against possible strikes from "rogue states."
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20090120/119717863.html
P.S please tell me I'm not crazy for finding Medvedev adorable