Obama begins meetings in Russia

President Obama and Russian President Medvedev are expected to announce the two countries have reached an understanding on a framework for START 1 which will include the lowering of the number of war heads and delivery missiles from 1700 to 1500.

The two men were all smiles in Moscow, even joking about the bad weather, at a press event before they proceeded into closed door meetings. "We have more in common than our differences, "Obama said to Medvedev. "If we work hard in the next couple of days we can make extraordinary progress that will benefit the people of both countries." For his part, Medvedev seemed optimistic about the meetings, saying the two nations were "closing some of the pages of the past and opening some of the pages of the future."

President Obama and his wife and children arrived in Moscow on Monday afternoon, just as Russian news reports were coming out about the deal between the two nations. While the framework is a start, neither side is expecting a final agreement to be reached while Obama is on the ground in Moscow.