Past Summits

Cleaning the Streets 

While the May 1972 Moscow summit is most memorable for the ABM and SALT I Treaties signed there, it was also notable for Muscovites, who saw their city significantly cleaned, remodeled and spruced up for the first-ever visit to the capital by a US president.

Summit Theater 

When Ronald Reagan met with Mikhail Gorbachev in Moscow the agenda was theatrical, not diplomatic. Reagan sought to meet with students, dissidents and other “regular Russians.” But he did give Gorbachev a stamp of approval when he was asked during an impromptu tour of Red Square whether he was in the “Evil Empire.” “No,” Reagan said, “that was another era.”

Then vs. Now

Every President from Franklin D. Roosevelt through George Bush (Sr.) has met with his Soviet counterpart at some international summit. 

A total of 26 U.S.-Soviet leadership meetings were held from 1943 to 1991. Since the breakup of the Soviet Union on December 25, 1991, Presidents Bill Clinton or George Bush (Sr. and Jr.) have met 23 times with Russian Presidents Boris Yeltsin or Vladimir Putin.