U.S.-Russia Accord on Missile Defense Almost Ready, Lavrov Says

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the U.S. and Russia are close to reaching an agreement on missile defense, the “hot potato” issue that has held up a new arms control accord between the two countries.

Presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev, who last met in June, agreed to come up with a joint expert review on the risks of missile proliferation, Lavrov said today in an interview published in Rossiiskaya Gazeta, the Russian government’s official newspaper.