Obama gaffe brings chilly response from Putin

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin last Friday rejected U.S. President Barack Obama's charge that he was mired in Cold War thinking, setting the scene for a stormy first meeting at a Moscow summit this week. In a pre-trip interview, the U.S. leader told the Associated Press that Putin needed to "understand that the Cold War approach to U.S.-Russian relationship is outdated" and that Putin had "one foot in the old ways of doing business." In a response that threatened to heighten diplomatic tensions before Obama's visit to Moscow on Monday, the Russian prime minister said: "We don't stand bow-legged." Putin -- who once described the collapse of the Soviet Union as "the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century" -- said that Russia is "standing firmly on both feet." When asked about Obama's comments, a spokesman for Putin said the prime minister would use the summit to relieve the president of his mistaken impressions. "I see that he does not possess full information. After visiting Moscow, President Obama will know the realities better," said Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. "Judging by these statements it is very good that the meeting with Prime Minister Putin is on President Obama's agenda. I am sure that after the meeting with Putin, President Obama will change his point of view," Peskov added. Putin remains the dominant force in the Russian power structure after stepping down as Kremlin chief in 2008. Putin called on the United States to move relations forward by shelving plans for a missile defense shield in Europe and called for Washington to change its approach to expanding the NATO military alliance. "If we see (that) our American partners refrain from deploying new missile complexes, anti-missile defense systems, or for example review their approach to widening military-political blocs, or generally refrain from bloc-like thinking, this would be a big movement forward," Putin said. Obama cast Putin's Russian counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev, as a man with whom he could do business but implied that Putin was an obstacle to rapprochement. "I think it is important that, even as we move forward with President Medvedev, that Putin understands that the old Cold War approach to US-Russia relations is outdated," said Obama. "I think that Medvedev understands that," the US President said.