RUSSIA:US PRESIDENT George W Bush's attempts to patch up the US's battered relationship with Russia failed yesterday when Russian president Vladimir Putin said he continued to oppose the US's European missile defence plans.
Mr Bush and Mr Putin held talks in the Black Sea resort of Sochi. It was their last encounter before Mr Putin steps down as president on May 7th.
Mr Bush also met Mr Putin's successor, Dmitry Medvedev.
Although the rapport between the presidents was warm, with Mr Bush calling Mr Putin a "strong leader" and slapping him affectionately on the back, there was no progress on the crucial issue: the US's contentious plans to build an anti-missile defence shield in central Europe. "I want to be understood correctly. Strategically, no change happened in our . . . attitude to US plans," Mr Putin said.
Mr Putin conceded, however, that there had been "some positive developments". "Our concerns were finally heard by the US side. I am cautiously optimistic that we will reach an agreement," he said.
The US plans to build a missile interceptor and radar base in Poland and the Czech Republic respectively, allegedly to shoot down any rogue missile fired by Iran. Russia remains strongly opposed to the plan, saying the threat from Iran is fictitious. The system wrecks Europe's strategic balance, it believes.
Yesterday Mr Bush insisted the system was not directed at Russia. Remarking that the cold war was now over, Mr Bush said that it was designed to deal with "regimes that could try to hold us hostage", rather than with "Russia's capacity to launch multiple warheads". "The best thing is to work jointly on such a system," said Mr Bush.
The leaders did agree a "strategic framework" setting out the future direction of the US-Russian relationship. However, this vague document fell short of the breakthrough the Bush administration had hoped for.
Talking to reporters on the way back to Washington, the US's national security adviser Stephen Hadley said there would be no deal on missile defence before Mr Bush left office. "I don't think that matters. They can leave that to their prospective successors."
One leading foreign affairs specialist said Russia and the US continued to misunderstand each other. "The relationship between Putin and Bush has been better than between Russia and the US," Fyodor Lukyanov, editor-in-chief of the journal Russia in Foreign Affairs, said. "Both have continued to argue that they are friends."
He went on: "The Russia-US relationship is bad because of a lack of common vision. After the Soviet Union disappeared, they never found mutual interest."
Sergei Markov, a Kremlin-connected analyst, said the friendship between Mr Putin and Mr Bush was genuine. "Putin shares the same values. They are both social conservatives and economic liberals."
Mr Bush struck a warm tone yesterday, seven years after his first encounter with Mr Putin, when he famously declared he had peered into Mr Putin's soul and found him trustworthy. His farewell meeting with the former KGB colonel was a "little bit nostalgic", Mr Bush said.
Asked whether he could now trust Mr Medvedev, Mr Bush said: "I just met the man for 20 minutes. He seemed like a very straightforward fellow. My first impressions are very favourable."
It is still not clear who will be Russia's real leader next month, with Mr Putin likely to take over as prime minister as soon as he vacates the Kremlin. Yesterday, however, Mr Putin said Mr Medvedev would represent Russia at major international summits.
Yesterday the leaders conceded that serious differences existed over Nato's eastward expansion.
Last week Mr Putin won a temporary victory after Nato decided to defer applications by Ukraine and Georgia to join the alliance. Nato made it clear that both countries would eventually become members.
- (Guardian service)