US vs. Russia: Who's Won Summits Past?

Joe Biden will go down in history with these other respected figures

(NEWSER) - Quite a big deal has been made over Joe Biden dropping the F-bomb . “But America has a long and honorable tradition of top elected officials using salty language,” writes John Dickerson on Slate . Allow him to educate you:

• Barack Obama: Famously called Kanye West a “jackass.”
• Joe Biden: Oh no, this wasn’t his first time. After being greeted by a former colleague as “Mr. Vice President,” he responded, “Give me a fucking break.”

(NEWSER) - Capitals across Europe have swooned for Barack Obama, but over two days in Moscow, the president got a reception more suited to a traveling salesman than a rock star. News coverage was sparse, crowds were nowhere to be seen, and even the students he addressed at an economics university came off unimpressed. "We don’t really understand why Obama is such a star," one graduate told the New York Times. More»

(NEWSER) - Barack Obama began his second day in Russia by meeting with Vladimir Putin at the president-turned-prime minister's country home outside Moscow. The two leaders both expressed a desire for improved relations, and observers said they had a cordial discussion. The president then addressed a Moscow economics university, where he told students that the US and Russia are not "destined to be antagonists." More»

President's trip to Moscow will be hard work, no fun

(NEWSER) - The last time Barack Obama went to Russia, he and another senator were detained by border guards for hours—and his upcoming trip won't be much fun either, say the editors of the Economist. Russia's economy is beholden to unstable oil and gas prices, the country's mortality rate is spiking, and the political system has devolved into "a pretense of democracy." Obama must placate Moscow's "kleptocratic courtiers and former spies" without coming off as a pushover. More»

(NEWSER) - It’s 1988. President Ronald Reagan is making a visit to the Soviet Union, where he tours Moscow’s Red Square alongside Mikhail Gorbachev. He stops and takes questions from a group of tourists about human rights in the United States. Except they’re not tourists, Radio Free Europe reports. They’re KGB agents and their families. And one of them is Col. Vladimir Putin. More»