Putin needs reminder, Obama says

WASHINGTON — Days from his first Moscow summit, President Barack Obama declared Thursday that former Russian President Vladimir Putin "still has a lot of sway" in his nation and needs an in-person reminder the Cold War is over.

On next week's trip, Obama will meet not only with

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev but with Putin, the prime minister who hand-picked Medvedev as his successor.

"I think that it's important that even as we move forward with President Medvedev that Putin understand that the old Cold War approaches to U.S.-Russian relations is outdated. ... Putin has one foot in the old ways of doing business and one foot in the new," Obama said.

In a wide-ranging interview, Obama also:

--Said he could see abandoning his own proposal to indefinitely hold some terror detainees —''it gives me great pause" — and said he would not be comfortable ordering such a disposition for Guantanamo Bay prisoners without congressional action.

--In light of recent Supreme Court cases dealing with highly charged questions about the nation's racial progress, said the high court was "moving the ball" away from affirmative action but noted the justices had not foreclosed the continued use of racial preferences in hiring and college admissions, which he said he supports in some circumstances. In any case he said affirmative action is neither the panacea, nor the problem, that it's often made out to be.

--With most experts in agreement that there's a good chance Iran could have a usable nuclear bomb sometime during his presidency, he said, "I'm not reconciled with that."

The 24-minute interview, with Obama nearly six months into his job and approval ratings still high, ranged from the serious to the silly.

Asked to let Americans in on a secret about White House life, the president chose the pastry chef and rued that "the best pie I have ever tasted" is a challenge to the first couple's self-discipline and waistlines. Asked to choose between basketball greats Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan, Obama, a committed hoops player and fan of Jordan's Chicago Bulls, didn't pause for even a second. "Michael," he said, picking the retired superstar. "I haven't seen anybody match up with Jordan yet."

Scheduled to depart Sunday for a trip to Russia, an international summit in Italy and his first trip to Africa as president, Obama praised Moscow for its cooperation in international efforts to persuade North Korea and Iran to abandon their nuclear development programs. The United Nations approved "the most robust sanction regime that we've ever seen with respect to North Korea," he said.

The main agenda item for Obama and Medvedev is to advance talks on a new strategic arms reduction treaty to replace one that expires in December.

In addition to sitting down with Medvedev, Obama also is meeting with Putin.

"I think that it's important that even as we move forward with President Medvedev that Putin understand that the old Cold War approaches to U.S.-Russian relations is outdated, that's it's time to move forward in a different direction," Obama said.

On Afghanistan, Obama said he intends to reassess the possible need for additional U.S. troops after the nation holds elections in August, but that he believes America's key goals can be met there "without us increasing our troop levels."

As for Guantanamo detainees, the former constitutional law teacher expressed doubts about his call to create a new legal framework to deal with terror suspects considered too dangerous to release but also impossible to prosecute, a potential major change in American jurisprudence.

"We're going to proceed very carefully on this front, and it may turn out that after looking at all the dimensions of this that I don't feel comfortable with the proposals," Obama said.

He added: "How we deal with those situations is going to be one of the biggest challenges of my administration."

The president spoke sympathetically at one point of the white firefighters in New Haven, Conn., who said they had been discriminated against and won their case this week before the Supreme Court.

He added that both the damage and benefits of affirmative action are overstated, saying that racial preferences in hiring or admissions could become "an afterthought" if problems such as malnutrition, poverty and substandard schools could be eliminated, creating a more level playing field.