Obama will discuss the economic crisis and security issues during the graduation ceremony at the school on July 7, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters.
"The speech will be an opportunity for President Obama to discuss areas of mutual interest between the United States and Russia such as nonproliferation, global security and economic growth," Gibbs said Thursday, according to a transcript published on the White House web site.
The graduation ceremony will run from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and be attended by about 1,000 people, said the New Economic School, a privately funded graduate school founded in 1992. "We are honored that President Obama will participate in our graduation ceremonies," school rector Sergei Guriyev said in a statement. "Our graduates, their families and the NES faculty, staff and alumni are looking forward to President Obama's address, particularly at a time when both the U.S. and Russian economies face such great challenges."
Gibbs said Obama would also attend a "civil society event" and a business forum during his visit. The forum of U.S. and Russian business leaders is scheduled for July 7 and is being organized by the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs and the American Chamber of Commerce.
Gibbs said he did not know which U.S. business executives might accompany Obama on the trip.
He said the centerpiece of Obama's visit would be talks on securing a follow-up arms control treaty to START I, which expires in December. The global economy will also be on the agenda.
Obama and President Dmitry Medvedev also will sign an agreement on military cooperation, General Nikolai Makarov, head of the General Staff, said Friday, in an announcement that caught the U.S. military off guard. The Pentagon said the deal would amount to a sign of goodwill and declined further comment. (Story, Page 3.)
Meanwhile, a White House spokeswoman confirmed Friday that Obama would hold talks with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
In May, Putin told reporters that he would be pleased to meet Obama if their schedules matched but that "the president of the United States is the partner of the president of the Russian Federation." Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov later said Putin would meet Obama after he met with Medvedev.
The White House spokeswoman could not say whether Obama would meet with Putin one-on-one or on which day it would take place.
Separately, gay activists applied to Moscow City Hall on Friday to hold a 25-person rally outside the U.S. Embassy at 1 p.m. on July 7 asking Obama to legalize same-sex marriage in the United States. The activists, who plan to hold a banner reading "Yes You Can," said they would hold a protest at another location on July 7 if city authorities refused to sanction their rally.
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