Clinton, Medvedev to meet in Moscow

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will meet with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev next week in Moscow, a State Department official confirms to The Cable.

The meeting will cover ongoing negotiations to finalize the follow-on to the START nuclear reductions treaty as well as other issues of mutual interest. She will not meet with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, the Russian leader who is most publicly criticizing the START negotiations and explicitly trying to tie them to U.S. missile-defense plans in Europe.

President Obama spoke with Medvedev over the phone regarding the START follow on last week, and the New York Times reported that Obama was surprised to learn in the phone call that the two sides were much further apart than he had expected. Forty-four nations will come to Washington in mid-April for a conference on nuclear disarmament and the administration would like to have a new nuke treaty to brag about by then.

"The secretary is going to Moscow for a Quartet meeting regarding the Middle East peace process," State Department P.J. Crowley told The Cable. "She will have a number of meetings while there. I am confident that the subjects will include not only the Middle East, but also Iran, START, and other topics. Our relationship with Russia is about more than one issue."

For the latest on the START agreement and its chances of ratification in the Senate, read this.