Medvedev: Obama 'Could Be More Tactful'

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said President Obama could be more “tactful” in his dealings with Russia, and said that the commander in chief was simply throwing around sanctions language to paint a tougher image to others in Washington.

Medvedev told Bloomberg News that “we are slowly but surely approaching a second Cold War that nobody needs.”

He also stressed that they have a cozy financial arrangement with China in the works.

“I believe it is likely that there will be a contract which means long-term agreements. The size can be agreed that it should be robust, which is incorporation  designed to last for many years. The wording will be finalized very soon,” the prime minister said. “I believe it is time we reached an agreement with the Chinese on the issue.”

Medvedev said that “to put it simply, no one is happy about sanctions since they are always a sign of tense relations.”

“You probably noticed that we have not commented on them a great deal or responded to them harshly, although we probably could cause some unpleasantries for the country that are imposing those sanctions,” he said. “But it’s bad for international economic relations, for our relations with Europe and the United States. Let’s be honest, the sanctions are a sharp knife for European business and American business doesn’t need them either. The only ones who want sanctions are politicians who use them to reinforce their connections and to demonstrate their power.”

“For example, our American colleagues and President Obama need to show the Congress that America doesn’t fear Russians. That if anything happens, they can hurt us. They need to show that the U.S. President can take tough decisions, or rather he’s doing everything the Senate accuses him of not doing. This is what the Americans are doing. The situation is somehow different for Europe.”

Medevedev said Obama “could be more tactful politically” in the way he’s handled the crisis.

“A competent politician knows how to make reserved, careful, subtle, wise and intelligent decisions which I believe Mr. Obama succeeded at for a while,” he said. “But what is being done now unfortunately proves that the U.S. administration has run out of those discussions, and the United States is one of the parties to suffer from this.”