Tatyana Bokova-Foley
Travel

Moscow Is Getting Ready for Obama

Barack Obama's 3-day trip to Moscow is to begin on July 6, but the US President is already the center of attention in Russia. Bolshoi Gorod, a popular Moscow bi-weekly, published the "Travel guide for Obama issue", where it tracks the President's route and suggests some tourist sights (Obama is expected to speak at the university graduation and hold talks with Prime Minister Putin and president Medvedev.)

Clifford Levy, the New York Times Moscow bureau chief, is asking Russians in his LiveJournal blog to suggest some issues which Americans don't understand about Russia: "I am writing an article for the New York Times in anticipation of the Medvedev-Obama meeting, in which I'd like to explain to our US readers those aspects of life in Russia which they don't understand by should," writes Levy.

In an open letter to Obama, Bolshoi Gorod reporter Ekaterina Krongauz urges the US president not to sign any treaties with the Kremlin until he takes a good look at this country. She notes that the most popular Obama-related search terms on Yandex (Russia's biggest search engine) are "Obama the antichrist", "Obama the muslim" and "Obama mistook window for a door."

Stay tuned for further RUSSIA! coverage of the Obama's trip to Moscow.

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