Russia will seek assurances from President Barack Obama tomorrow that Washington will cease pressing for the former Soviet states of Georgia and Ukraine to join Nato — a policy that was aggressively pursued by George W Bush.

On his first visit to Russia as president, Obama is due to hold nine hours of talks with President Dmitry Medvedev and share a breakfast with prime minister Vladimir Putin. Russian sources say both men will warn him about a risk of repeating last year’s war in Georgia.

Russia strongly opposes Georgia and Ukraine joining Nato as this would extend the alliance’s reach to its borders. Obama is said to be less enthusiastic than Bush about putting pressure on them to join. Russian military analysts say that in return, Moscow could make concessions over Iran, such as banning future arms sales to the Islamic republic and agreeing more robust UN sanctions to help curb its nuclear programme.

Russia has signalled its readiness to open supply routes for American forces fighting in Afghanistan. The deal could be signed this week and would see up to 10 flights a day crossing Russia, so boosting the war against the Taliban. Both sides are keen for the meetings to “reset” relations between their countries — at their lowest ebb since the end of the cold war, in the wake of the Georgia conflict.

In an apparent effort to shore up Medvedev’s liberal credentials, Obama chided Putin for his cold-war attitude to the US, and contrasted that with his administration’s “very good relationship” with Medvedev over such issues as nuclear weapons.

Russia and the US have already agreed in principle to reduce their nuclear warheads from 5,000 to 1,500 each.

Obama is facing tough negotiations, however. The Kremlin wants the US to scrap its missile defence shield in Europe and sees this priority project of the previous US administration as being directed against Russia. Washington argues that the shield is vital to protect America and Europe against any nuclear threat from Iran.

Moscow seeks to link an arms reduction treaty to a pledge to scrap plans for the shield, but Obama is unlikely to make any such concession.

“Talk about resetting US-Russian relations is hype,” said a former British ambassador to Moscow.

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