This week, Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov visited Washington to sign agreements on child adoption, visas, and nuclear safety. In reality, however, what Hillary Clinton and the Obama Administration are hailing as symbols of closer cooperation between the two countries are only a façade to cover up the lack of progress on the more critical issues dividing the two countries: Iran, missile defense, and human rights. Lavrov and Clinton both agreed that it is time for Libyan leader Muammar Qadhafi to go. In Lavrov underscored that the Libyan leader should …
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov recently stated that there is no proof that Iran is building nuclear weapons. The Russian Federation has held this position for a long time. However, Lavrov apparently has not heard what his boss, president Dmitry Medvedev said—and did—on this matter. Moscow voted in favor of all the four rounds of United Nations Security Council (UNSC) sanctions on Iran aimed at pressuring the country to stop its nuclear weapons program. Russia also joined the ban on supplying arms and military aircraft to Iran. Significantly, the Kremlin …
This Thursday President Barack Obama is scheduled to sign a follow on agreement to the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty in Prague with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev. Since the day agreement on the new treaty was leaked by the Kremlin, the White House has been claiming that the treaty “does not contain any constraints on testing, development or deployment of current or planned U.S. missile defense programs.” And from day one the Russians have been saying the opposite. Today in Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov again made it clear that …
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s visit to Moscow to speed up the completion of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty follow-on agreement with Russia continues to highlight the difficulty of dealing with Moscow even when the two countries ostensibly share common interests. Although Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov claimed an agreement would be reached before the end of the month, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin greeted Clinton with an announcement that the nuclear plant Russia is helping Iran build in Bushehr will begin operations this summer. Clinton called the decision “premature.” She …
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin further undermined U.S. efforts to present a united front against Iran’s nuclear program by ruling out talking about sanctions, which he said would be “premature.” Putin told reporters in Beijing, where he was attending a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, that “There is no need to frighten the Iranians.” Putin’s comments came a day after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called sanctions “counterproductive” after meeting with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who had traveled to Moscow in search of solidarity over how to respond …
The Washington Post reports: Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton held lengthy talks with [Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov]Tuesday as part of an intense American effort to improve relations, but she made few gains on a top U.S. priority — increasing pressure on Iran. … Emerging from four hours of talks with Clinton, Lavrov told reporters that “threats, sanctions and threats of pressure” against Iran would be “counterproductive.” We wish we were surprised by this news. Unfortunately it fits into a very well established pattern in U.S. policy on Iran:
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton received bad news today in Moscow regarding her quest to secure greater Russian cooperation in holding Iran’s feet to the fire on the nuclear issue. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, speaking after the meeting, said that “all efforts” should be made to maintain dialogue with Iran: We are convinced that threats, sanctions, and threats of pressure in the present situation are counter-productive. Never mind that Iran already has stonewalled previous efforts to resolve the nuclear issue through diplomatic negotiations and is likely to run out …
