Obama tied the problems of the disarmament program with Putin's return to power

The United States is unhappy with the pace with which the process of nuclear disarmament is underway, but Russia does not allow it to be accelerated. According to Reuters, the American President Barack Obama made such a statement, according to the results of the Nuclear Safety summit, which took place in Washington from March 31 to April 1.

"My personal preference is to continue the reduction of the nuclear arsenal," the head of state said. In his opinion, progress in this direction significantly slept after Vladimir Putin again got into the presidency and continued to "pay more attention to the country's military power, while sacrificing economic development."

Obama also added that it is extremely difficult to achieve reductions in nuclear arsenals by other countries, while the USA and Russia, which have the largest nuclear weapons reserves, "will not show a readiness to show an example to the rest," in particular, Pakistan and India, TASS reports.

Recall that two days earlier, Obama in his column in The Washington Post announced violations of Russia on the liquidation of medium and smaller missiles (RSMD) and called on Moscow to negotiate nuclear forces. He emphasized that the "massive nuclear arsenal of the Cold War" is not suitable for modern threats.

At the same time, he added that the fulfillment of obligations under the contract is ongoing, and by 2018 the number of deployed American and Russian nuclear warheads will be at the lowest level since 1950.

In Russia, Obama's call was considered "empty." "The United States must first restore relations with Russia, and then offer us negotiations on nuclear weapons," the head of the State Duma committee on international affairs Alexei Pushkov wrote on his microblog on Twitter.

Obama called the main problem of nuclear security

According to the American leader, the most urgent problem in the field of nuclear security is the DPRK and its program for creating weapons of mass destruction and delivery products. "The DPRK is in a completely separate category. It bothers us now the most," Obama said.

Then one of the journalists in the hall reminded him of a statement by billionaire Donald Trump, who is one of the main favorites of the race for the right to be the next president of the United States. Trump suggested Japan and South Korea to get nuclear weapons themselves to “scare” North Korea.

“What do such statements mean? They mean that the person who made these statements does not know much about foreign policy, nuclear policy, Korean peninsula and the world as a whole,” Obama emphasized.

Obama about Erdogan, Iran and the fight against terrorism

Answering the question of whether he considers Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan an authoritarian leader, Obama left a direct answer, but noted that he was extremely concerned about Ankara’s policy.

He emphasized that the "trend against the free press" existing in Turkey sooner or later can lead to dangerous consequences. The American president also called on Erdogan to stop the political persecution of journalists and not to undermine the democratic regime in the country.

The main recommendation of Obama to Iran was the proposal to “follow the spirit of the transaction” under the nuclear program and not to scare away the business with his actions. He noted that Iran acts in accordance with the letter of the agreement, but the republic should also "send signals to the world community and companies that it will not engage in provocative activities."

The US leader also recalled the need to actively exchange data on the Islamic State (IG, Daesh, a terrorist organization prohibited in Russia) in Syria. In addition, he admitted: “There is no doubt” that part of the American airstrikes in this country fell on civilians. “People who should not have died,” the president stated.