New Russian president visits Berlin

BERLIN, June 5 (UPI) -- Russia's new president, Dmitry Medvedev, is paying his first official visit to Germany on Thursday.

Officials in Berlin hope that Russian-German relations improve with Medvedev, who succeeded Vladimir Putin as Russian president on May 7.

The new president, a lawyer by education, has promised to improve the rule of law in Russia, and observers say he will also strengthen civil society.

However, there are a series of issues that have come up between Russia and the West in the past two years, mainly Moscow's resistance to Kosovo's independence and a U.S.-planned missile defense system in Eastern Europe.

Medvedev will meet with Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Horst Koehler before speaking to a gathering of Russian and German business officials. Germany is Russia's biggest trading partner, and the two countries have intense energy relations.

Medvedev will also meet with Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and visit the Soviet War Memorial in Berlin's Treptower Park.

It is his second trip as Russian president; the first trip took him to China.