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US President Barack Obama - Source: Reuters -
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For once, the adoring crowds were absent as Barack Obama visited
Russia this week.
Feted in many countries as a global superstar and accustomed to
rapturous welcomes when he travels at home and abroad, the US
president received a more muted response during two days of talks
in Moscow.
Instead of cheering crowds lining the streets, Obama's motorcade
was greeted with some smiles and waves as it sped through the
Russian capital.
Most people looked on, showing little reaction.
The cooler reception reflects Russia's testy relations with the
United States and the determination of its leaders, President
Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, not to be
eclipsed by a foreign star as they grapple with an economic crisis
that threatens to test their own popularity.
"We are maybe the one country in the world where there is no
Obamamania," Sergei Markov, a parliamentary deputy from the ruling
United Russia party, told Reuters.
"For us he is not president of the world but the president of the
United States of America."
At his first major international event as president in April at the
G20 meeting in London, wall-to-wall media coverage greeted
Obama.
Not so in Russia, where state television provided no live
broadcast of his arrival aboard Air Force One on Monday.
On Tuesday, a major speech by the president at Moscow's New
Economic School was greeted with no more than polite
applause.
"We have a different way of expression. Maybe it only seems that
we're not that excited," said Mikhail Panfilov, 26, a recent
graduate of the school, adding he thought the event was
extraordinary.
He suggested that people's busy lives and ignorance of Obama's
schedule accounted for the low turnout to greet him.
"Russian people have a lot of problems. They have a lot of work. They have no time to go and make crowds."
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