Putin rejects Obama criticism before meeting

By Gleb Bryanski

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Friday rejected U.S. President Barack Obama's charge that he was mired in Cold War thinking, setting the scene for a stormy first meeting at a Moscow summit next week.

In a pre-trip interview, the U.S. leader told the Associated Press that Putin needed to "understand that the Cold War approach to U.S.-Russian relationship is outdated" and that Putin had "one foot in the old ways of doing business."

Putin -- who once described the collapse of the Soviet Union as "the greatest geo-political catastrophe of the century" -- hit back, saying Russians were standing firmly on both feet.

"We are standing firmly on both feet and always look to the future. That is the peculiarity of Russia. That has always allowed Russia to move forward and get stronger. That will continue," Putin was shown saying with a smile on state television.

Putin remains the dominant force in the Russian power structure after stepping down as Kremlin chief in 2008. His meeting with Obama next week is likely to set the tone for relations between the world's two biggest nuclear powers.

Putin also called on the United States to move relations forward by shelving plans for a missile defense shield in Europe and called for Washington to change its approach to expanding the NATO military alliance.

"If we see (that) our American partners refrain from deploying new missile complexes, anti-missile defense systems, or for example review their approach to widening military-political blocs, or generally refrain from bloc-like thinking, this would be a big movement forward," Putin said.

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