Six years after they first met and United States President George Bush reported gazing into Russian President Vladimir Putin’s soul, the two leaders face some tense talks at the Group of Eight (G8) on Thursday.
Bush’s strong personal ties with Putin have been at the heart of US-Russian relations since a summit in Slovenia in June 2001, when Bush emerged declaring: ”I was able to get a sense of his soul.”
Now bitter disagreement over US military plans in Europe and Russia’s democratic record overshadows the George-and-Vladimir show as the presidents prepare to meet at the G8 summit in Heiligendamm, Germany.
Trust is collapsing and a dispute over a proposed US anti-missile shield in the Czech Republic and Poland is intensifying almost daily.
Just ahead of the summit, Putin warned that Russia would respond to the shield by targeting nuclear missiles at Europe, something not seen since the Cold War.
”We are, of course, returning to this era,” he said.
Putin, whose petrodollar-fuelled country is brimming with new confidence, has also recently labelled White House policies as imperialist, colonialist and arrogantly ”unilateral”.
While Bush insists that he wants to keep working with Russia, the US leader on Tuesday attacked Putin’s ”derailing” of democratic reforms. He also pledged to go ahead with the anti-missile shield, which he said was not aimed at Russia.
For now the two rivals are still talking.
In addition to Thursday’s talks, they will meet again in three weeks at a more relaxed setting of the Bush family home in Kennebunkport in Maine.
The two presidents, both of whom leave office in 2008 at the end of their second terms, may even rekindle the back-slapping warmth of previous days, when Bush revelled in folksy talk about his ”friend Vladimir”.
Observers point to curious symmetry in the presidencies of two outwardly very different men.
Both were defined by self-declared wars against ”terrorists” — Chechnya for Putin and the US response to the September 11 2001 attacks for Bush — which critics saw as trampling over human rights.
Both are known for macho rhetoric and both have pushed for strong presidential powers, albeit to a far more extreme level in Putin’s case.
But friendly chats are unlikely to overcome a widening East-West rift.
In addition to the missile shield row, Putin is at loggerheads with the European Union over energy exports and trade, and is accused of bullying pro-Western former Soviet republics such as Georgia.
Britain’s extradition request for an ex-KGB officer accused of last year’s radiation poisoning of a Russian ex-agent in London will also overshadow Putin’s G8 talks with Prime Minister Tony Blair.
One thing both side agree on is the need to get these problems out in the open.
”The point is Putin is making some decisions and the president is very candid asking him questions about those decisions,” Bush’s national security adviser, Steve Hadley, said last week.
Kremlin spokesperson Peskov also looked forward to ”open” talks.
”Laying out of worries does not mean a crisis situation,” he said. ”Putin has always highly valued President Bush’s openness and speaking of his mind.” — Sapa-AFP