Transcript: George Stephanopoulos Interviews Russian President Dmitry Medvedev

"Good Morning America" anchor George Stephanopoulos interviewed Russian President Dmitry Medvedev the day after Medvedev and President Barack Obama signed the new START treaty.

The following is a transcript of the exclusive interview, which took place on Friday, April 9, 2010.

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Mister President, thank you very much for having us in St. Petersburg. This is going to be an interview played to a very broad American audience. And I just want to get to get your view on what's the single most important thing that the average American needs to know about Russia today exactly?

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Russian president Dmitry Medvedev said in an... View Full Caption

Russian president Dmitry Medvedev said in an exclusive interview with "Good Morning America" that he would consider withdrawing from the nuclear disarmament treaty he and President Obama signed last week, should the U.S. missile defense program in Europe create an "imbalance." Close

MEDVEDEV:That Russia is the same normal regular country as America.

STEPHANOPOULOS: What does that mean?

MEDVEDEV: That means exactly what I said that we have similar values. And have basically probably the same, what the regular americans would like to have. We'd like to give the population the most comfortable conditions of life which unfortunately we can't always provide. we have a lot of threats which we are fighting and we have tasks that we'd like to achieve, to develop and we have the same values as a democratic country established about 20 years ago.

STEPHANOPOULOS:And we see now a landmark agreement between the United States and Russia over nuclear weapons, signed in Prague. And-- it was a hard fought agreement. And the-- the issue of missile defense still seems to divide the United States and Russia. And I just have a very-- simple question. If the United States continues to develop missile defense in Europe, will Russia withdraw from the START treaty?