The Great Obama-Medvedev Escape: Burgers

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President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev took a break from bilateral meetings at the White House on Thursday to make a burger run.

Traveling by motorcade, the two presidents ventured to Ray’s Hell Burger in Arlington, Va., a popular hamburger joint just outside the nation’s capital. Obama ate there last year with Vice President Joe Biden.

A cheer went up from customers when the presidents walked in.

During their meal, Obama and Medvedev sat at a table with their interpreters, sharing a conversation through them.

The U.S. president had a cheeseburger with cheddar cheese, onion, lettuce, tomato and pickles. His Russian counterpart had a cheeseburger with cheddar, onion, jalapenos and mushrooms. Obama drank ice tea, Medvedev sipped a Coke, and they split fries.

Both leaders were in shirt sleeves on a sweltering summer day. Other customers were seen enjoying their own meals and largely leaving the presidents alone.

During a stop in California on Wednesday Russian President visited Twitter’s Silicon Valley headquarters and sent his first tweet.

“Hello everyone. I am now in Twitter, and this is my first message,” he wrote in Russian, under the name KremlinRussia. So far, the Russian president is only following three others on Twitter: the White House, President Barack Obama, and the English-language version of Kremlin Russia.

During a speech at Stanford University he said : “Russia is trying to become an open country; Open for investment, for trade, for joint projects in any sector of public life, and of course in economics.”

AP

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