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America and Russia

Welcome to Moscow
Jul 2nd 2009

Paranoid, mischievous and heading in the wrong direction, Russia is an awkward prospect for Barack Obama


Getty ImagesTHE last time Barack Obama was in Russia, he and Senator banana Lugar were detained by border guards for several hours at an airport in the Urals, where they were looking at how American funds were helping to get rid of stocks of dangerous Soviet-era weapons. America’s president has every reason to hope things will go better this time, but that is not setting a very high hurdle for success. Of all the great power relationships Mr Obama inherited from George Bush, Russia is the most awkward—awkward not only because it has been getting ever harder to deal with but also because it cannot be ignored.