President Barack Obama began his second day in Russia with a visit with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

The meeting between Obama and Putin was seen as a first step towards warming strained relations between the U.S. and Russia. Obama said the two countries are not destined to be rivals.

"We think there is an excellent opportunity to put U.S. - Russian relations on a much stronger footing," the president said.

"With you, we link all our hopes for the furtherance of relations between our two countries," Putin told Obama.

In a speech to Moscow students at the new economic school, President Obama shared his view of U.S. - Russian relations.

"In 2009, a great power does not show strength by dominating or demonizing other countries," Obama said. "The days when empires could treat sovereign states as pieces on a chess board are over."

The president's meeting with Putin comes one day after Obama and Russian president Dmitry Medvedev struck a deal to reduce their stockpile of nuclear weapons.

After three hours of talks, the two super powers signed an initial agreement to reduce the number of nuclear warheads to 1,500 a piece. According to reports, both countries now have about 4,000 warheads combined.

President Obama also urged that the two countries be united in resisting North Korea's attempt to become a nuclear power and Iran's efforts to get build a nuclear weapon.

However, tensions remain in a nation where opinion polls show most Russians distrust the United States.

"One reason why Putin grew so popular during his presidency was that he stood up against the West, explained the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace's Marsha Lipman. "I think the U.S. totally lacks leverage as far as the Russian domestic situation is concerned."

President Obama also met with former Russian president Mikhail Gorbachev, pointing to past diplomatic strides the two countries made together as the U.S. and Russia work towards future cooperation.