Obama serves notice to Putin
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WASHINGTON - Days from his first Moscow summit, President Obama said yesterday that Russia’s former president, Vladimir Putin, “still has a lot of sway’’ in his nation and needs an in-person reminder that the Cold War is over.
On next week’s trip, Obama will meet not only with President Dmitry Medvedev, but also with Putin, the prime minister who hand-picked Medvedev as his successor. Said Obama: “I think that it’s important that even as we move forward with President Medvedev that Putin understand that the old Cold War approaches to US-Russian relations is outdated. . . . Putin has one foot in the old ways of doing business and one foot in the new.’’
In a wide-ranging interview, Obama also:
◼Said he could see abandoning his own proposal to indefinitely hold some terrorism detainees - “it gives me great pause’’ - and said he would not be comfortable ordering such a disposition for Guantanamo Bay prisoners without congressional action.
◼In light of recent Supreme Court cases dealing with highly charged questions about the nation’s racial progress, including this week’s decision favoring white firefighters in New Haven, said the high court was “moving the ball’’ away from affirmative action but noted that the justices had not foreclosed the continued use of racial preferences in hiring and college admissions, which he said he supports in some circumstances.
◼With most specialists in agreement that there is a good chance that Iran could have a usable nuclear bomb during his presidency, he said, “I’m not reconciled with that.’’
◼Said he did not see any controversy in that he did not issue a formal statement about Michael Jackson’s death and said he knew of no dissatisfaction among blacks about that. “I know a lot of people in the black community and I haven’t heard that,’’ he said.
In an interview with religious news media, Obama said he is taking his time picking a church in Washington because his choice will undergo political scrutiny. He said the controversy over his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, left his family a bit shaken. He added that his family will decide later this year and might choose to rotate among several churches.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
For envoy to the Netherlands, Obama nominated Fay Hartog-Levin, a Chicago public relations executive who gave $2,100 directly to Obama’s presidential campaign and another $28,500 to the Democratic Obama Victory Fund, according to campaignmoney.com.
By contrast, the president picked longtime Foreign Service officers for the ambassadorships in Mongolia, Burkina Faso, and Swaziland, and a longtime academic for the one in Malta.
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