Putin: New US gov't should improve ties

Sat, 13 Sep 2008 22:26:05 GMT Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin says he expects the next US administration to improve the two countries' strained relations. "I wait for the relations to improve. They (the US) marred them, and they should improve them," Putin said Saturday in an interview with the French paper Le Figaro.  The US-Russia relations, which enjoyed a relative calm following the collapse of the Soviet Union, began to deteriorate when Washington in 2007 decided to deploy an anti-ballistic missile defense shield in Eastern Europe.  The US claimed the system was meant to counter threats from the Middle East, while Moscow said the system was aimed at Russia. The already tense ties were further strained over the recent Georgia-Russia conflict. Putin also revealed that Moscow had evidence proving that unauthorized US citizens were in the security zone during the recent conflict.
The prime minister said a passport copy of an American citizen, who was spotted in the security zone during the five-day operation, was made available to the media by Anatoly Nogovitsyn, the deputy chief of Russia's General Staff, RIA Novosti reported. "Under previously signed international agreements, only three groups of people were allowed to the very security zone, that is locals, peacekeepers and OSCE observers," Putin said.  He added that Russia had documents proving that the Americans who were in the area did not fall under to any of those categories, calling on Washington to address the issue.  MMN/HAR, original source at PressTV