Obama and Medvedev are prepared to discuss a joint fight against corruption

Russia with the U.S. might be together to fight against corruption - an agreement could be the first to be near the Kremlin with the new administration the White House. While in Moscow were the Russian-American consultations on cooperation in Afghanistan, Washington has been discussing other ways to enhance cooperation with Russia, the newspaper Kommersant.

From the American side to discuss the idea of an agreement on joint anti-corruption agenda of the forthcoming summit of the presidents of Russia and the USA. Preparations for the first meeting of Dmitry Medvedev and Barack Obama already is in full swing. According to the source publications in the Russian Foreign Ministry, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton discussed a possible meeting between the two leaders before the summit, "the big twenty" on 2 April in London. So far, however, to any agreement the parties have not reached, and the presidents are likely to first meet at the summit G20.

- Obama could come to Moscow in April
- Corruption in Russia has reached an eight-peak

Diplomats deliberately picked up the first meeting of the topics on which parties would be the easiest to negotiate. One of them - nuclear disarmament - was adopted in Moscow with great enthusiasm. But the White House understands that a serious document, related to nuclear disarmament, to the meeting of two presidents in April, diplomats are not .

Therefore, the U.S. administration looking for an opportunity to demonstrate the revival of relations between the two countries in any other way. After analyzing the recent statements by President Medvedev, surrounding Barack Obama has decided that the Russian leader is the fight against corruption - and it was decided to make a topic for negotiation.

Sources of Kommersant argued that the development of anti-corruption agreements with Russia is currently the Director of the Russian Division of the National Security Council of the United States Michael McFaul.

Formally, Russia and the United States binds only one document in which the leaders of the two countries undertook together to fight corruption - a declaration that "The fight against corruption at the highest level", adopted at the Summit of Eight in St. Petersburg in 2006. An important basis for a new agreement could be and the Patriotic Act, the third chapter which is devoted entirely to the fight against money laundering to combat terrorism. According to sources, the new two-sided document can largely repeat the already existing ones.

In any case, such a document is unlikely to be an effective way to combat corruption, says Ariel Cohen, a leading expert on Russia Fund Heritage. "It is not clear why it is necessary to propose, if not already performed by existing agreements", - perplexed specialist.

So far, only a scandal involving the criminal prosecution of Russian officials in the U.S., it was ex-Minister of Atomic Energy Yevgeny Adamov. In 2005, the U.S. demanded his extradition from Switzerland, accused of embezzling 9 million dollars allocated by Washington for projects to ensure nuclear safety. However, the Swiss court chose to extradite a former minister to Russia, where he was appointed a conditional term.