Whenever you hear politicians talking about how some countries need to be kept from having nuclear weapons because they’re so dangerous and whatnot, it’s good to remember that, hey, the United States has quite a few nukes lying around as reminders of the Cold War. Russia, as well, could still pretty easily blow up the world. But good news everybody! President Obama is in Russia, right now, and he and Russian President Dmitri Medvedev have agreed to cut both countries’ nuclear arsenals.

The agreement, in its preliminary stages, was approved by both presidents after being hammered out by negotiators for the nations. It’s also modest in the proposed reductions, says the New York Times, though hopefully setting the stage for more significant cuts.

Both sides say they hope that the nuclear agreement would effectively set the stage for a successor to the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, a cold war-era pact that expires in December.

Beyond that, they said they wanted to build momentum for a broader agreement to be negotiated starting next year to impose deeper cuts in their nuclear arsenals and put the world on a path toward eliminating nuclear weapons altogether.

This comes not too long after Russia received a great deal of international criticism for its invasion of Georgia (the one without Atlanta), but both leaders are hoping that this deal helps jumpstart relations once again. As long as Putin doesn’t decide he’d rather not. He does run Russia, still, you know.