On the eve of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s visit to Washington U.S. President Barack Obama speaks about U.S.-Russian relations and the agenda of the upcoming talks in an exclusive interview with Interfax correspondent Peter Cheremushkin.

Richard Klarberg, President and CEO of Council on Accreditation non-profit organization that accredits or is in the process of accrediting over 1,500 human and social service providers, told Interfax ahead of the next round of Russian-U.S. talks on adoptions that Moscow and Washington need to secure an agreement in order to prevent any disruption to the process of adoption of Russian children by U.S. citizens.

U.S. Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Affairs Ellen Tauscher has given a review of U.S. position on pressing arms control issues, including Iran and ABM in Europe, and praises UN nuclear non-proliferation efforts in an interview with Interfax.

Mikhail Gorbachev, who signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) with George H.W. Bush in 1991, shares his views on the new strategic arms treaty with Interfax. The news that Russia and the United States are due to sign a new treaty on the reduction of strategic offensive armaments was high on public agendas last week. Everyone knows that the two countries‘ reductions of their strategic arsenals is a process that owes its existence to former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev, who in 1991 signed a treaty on strategic offensive armaments with then U.S. president George H.W. Bush. Unquestionably, Gorbachev‘s position on the strategic weapons issue is widely heeded today as well.