Obama plans energy talks with Russians

MOSCOW, July 3 (UPI) -- U.S. President Barack Obama will seek Russian cooperation in preventing climate change through better energy technology in a Moscow visit, officials said.

Obama flies to Russia on Monday for a busy round of talks.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, preparing for the session, said Russia was ready for a fresh start with Obama, the Moscow Times reported.

Michael McFaul, Obama's special assistant and senior director for Russian and Eurasian affairs, said energy will be a major topic for talks with Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

"In particular, we want to have conversations about diversification of supplies out of Russia and through the region in a way that it's not thought about in a zero-sum way," he said. Russia has recently said it wants to be the major energy supplier to Europe, and has been buying up natural gas supplies from neighboring producers.

"It's not, in our view, a zero-sum game, that if it's two points for Russia it's negative two for us," McFaul said, urging the seeking of possible ways both countries can advance their interests at the same time through cooperation.