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Restarting the U.S.-Russia Relationship in Iceland

Jan 17, 2017 | 01:00 GMT

Restarting the U.S.-Russia Relationship in Iceland
Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev (L) and U.S. President Ronald Reagan sign a nuclear arms control treaty in Washington in 1987.

(-/AFP/Getty Images)

As Russia continues to feel out the incoming administration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, Moscow and Washington have found themselves in an eerily familiar situation. Trump suggested over the weekend that he may ease sanctions against Russia in exchange for its participation in a nuclear arms reduction deal. The announcement came just as rumors surfaced that the president-elect plans to meet with his soon-to-be counterpart, Vladimir Putin, in the Icelandic capital of Reykjavik -- the site of a historic U.S.-Soviet summit on arms control. Though both sides denied that the details of a new summit have been settled, using nuclear weapons talks as a basis for building better relations is a tried-and-true tactic that Washington appears ready to dust off. But this time the negotiations will take place under vastly different circumstances, ones in which the United States' go-to approach will no longer work....

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