Obama Appeals for Stronger Partnership with Russia

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• JIM LEHRER:

  President Obama wound up his trip to Russia today with a new appeal for better relations; that was the message in a meeting with Prime Minister Putin and a speech to a graduating class.

  Gwen Ifill has our lead story report.

• GWEN IFILL:

  The powerful former president of Russia welcomed President Obama this morning for a breakfast meeting at his estate outside Moscow. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin served as president until last year, when his chosen successor, Dmitry Medvedev, was elected.

  Today, Putin spoke of improving relations with the United States, but he also acknowledged complex and sometimes difficult disputes.

  VLADIMIR PUTIN, prime minister, Russia (through translator): There were periods when our relations flourished quite a bit, and there were also periods of, shall we say, grayish mood between our two countries and of stagnation. With you, we link all our hopes for the furtherance of relations between our two countries.

• GWEN IFILL:

  President Obama said last week that Putin, who was for years a KGB officer, had, quote, "one foot in the old ways of doing business." Putin responded, saying his feet were, quote, "planted in the future, as is everyone in Russia."

  Mr. Obama offered a more conciliatory assessment this morning.

• U.S. PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA:

  I'm aware of not only the extraordinary work that you've done on behalf of the Russian people in your previous role as prime minister — as president, but in your current role as prime minister.

  So we think there's an excellent opportunity to put U.S.-Russian relations on a much stronger footing. And we may not end up agreeing on everything, but I think that we can have a tone of mutual respect and consultation that will serve both the American people and the Russian people well.

• GWEN IFILL:

  The president later told American network television interviewers that he found Putin "shrewd, tough and unsentimental."

  Then, he traveled back to Moscow for a commencement address at the New Economic School. It was founded in the early 1990s as the Soviet Union was disintegrating.

• BARACK OBAMA:

  Let me be clear: America wants a strong, peaceful and prosperous Russia.

• GWEN IFILL:

  The president spoke to the graduating class of the issues that unite the U.S. and Russia and of those that still divide the two countries, but he said disagreements need not make the two nations into adversaries again.

• BARACK OBAMA:

  There is the 20th-century view that the United States and Russia are destined to be antagonists and that a strong Russia or a strong America can only assert themselves in opposition to one another.

  The pursuit of power is no longer a zero-sum game. Progress must be shared. That's why I have called for a reset in relations between the United States and Russia.

• GWEN IFILL:

  Afterward, Mr. Obama met with Mikhail Gorbachev, whose policies as Soviet leader in the 1980s helped open the closed communist society.

  The president then talked with business and civil society leaders and said that U.S.- Russian cooperation must move beyond official channels.

• BARACK OBAMA:

  It has to be between our people. It has to be more than just security or dismantling weapons. It has to be about our common prosperity, the jobs we create, the innovation we unleash, the industries that we build.

• GWEN IFILL:

  And late in the day, he met with political opposition leaders, whose influence on the democratic process in Russia has been dramatically curtailed in recent years.

  Mr. Obama leaves Russia tomorrow for the Group of 8 summit in L'Aquila, Italy, and an audience with the pope in Rome later this week.

  Margaret Warner has been covering the story in Moscow. I spoke with her earlier today.

  Margaret, it's good to see you. President Obama spoke today of staging a reset in U.S.-Russia relations. How did that play out?