David Cay Johnston: “in my judgment, there have been a number of premature pronouncements about the outcome of the President's trips to…”

“in my judgment, there have been a number of premature pronouncements about the outcome of the President's trips to Moscow and Kiev that I believe are one-sided and unfair. Many important achievements have been overlooked and ignored, and important foundations have been laid for success on more contentious issues in the future. It is far too early to know what the ultimate outcome will be on the very contentious issue of the proposed Russian sale of nuclear reactors to Iran. The President began the process of engaging the Russians seriously on the serious global security implications of such a sale by sharing information with the Russians which they will not assess and debate. The Russians have not closed the door to reconsideration of this issue; the President kept it open through persuasive argument which we hope, when fully evaluated by the Russian side, will lead to the Russians decided to cancel this sale. Lost in the coverage of the reactor sale was an important victory in the resolution of a number of outstanding issues regarding Russia's closing down arms sales to Iran.”