Clinton unveils Whitman statue in Moscow

MOSCOW, Oct. 14 (UPI) -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Wednesday unveiled a statue of U.S. poet Walt Whitman at a new monument at Moscow State University in Russia.

Noting the Whitman statue was a response to the statue of Russian poet Alexander Pushkin placed on the campus of George Washington University in Washington 10 years ago, Clinton compared Whitman's 19th century poetic accomplishments to modern relations between Russia and the United States.

"Just as Pushkin and Whitman reset poetry, we are resetting our relationship for the 21st century," Clinton said while flanking Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov. "And that relationship is not just between our two governments, but most importantly, it is between the Russians and American people."

After the ceremony, Clinton delivered a speech at the school in which she said some in the U.S. and Russian governments must move past a Cold War mentality to address issues of today.

Clinton said such people put up roadblocks on issues such as missile defense because "they don't trust each other," CNN reported Wednesday.

She also called on the nations to seek common ground, saying they "shouldn't end all cooperation" simply because they don't agree on all issues.

"Let's be smarter than our past," Clinton said.

On Tuesday, Clinton's meetings with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Lavrov didn't result in breakthroughs on arms control, Afghanistan or possible sanctions against Iran for its nuclear program, CNN said.

"We are different countries; we have different historical experiences, different perspectives," she said. "But we are planting those disagreements in a much broader field of cooperation, and hopefully we are enriching the earth in which this cooperation can take root."