Putin to be Bush's guest in Maine in effort to boost ties

By Maura Reynolds

May 31, 2007 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

WASHINGTON — In an effort to reverse the deepening chill in relations with Moscow, President Bush is to host Russian President Vladimir V. Putin next month at the Bush family vacation compound in Kennebunkport, Maine.

The two leaders say they have a friendly relationship, even as serious strains have developed between their countries over NATO’s plans to install missile defense systems in former Soviet bloc countries, over the status of Kosovo and on other issues.

U.S. officials said Wednesday that the aim of the Kennebunkport visit was to ease tensions, starting at the top.

The planned presence of the American president’s father, former President George H.W. Bush, during the visit was seen as an additional way to personalize the encounter and evoke a more optimistic period in U.S.-Russian relations.

“There are some areas where we disagree, where we’ve had open disagreements,” White House spokesman Tony Snow said. “One of the interesting things about the president and President Putin is that they are not afraid to ventilate them, and they’re brutally honest with one another.”

Putin and his aides recently have sharpened their comments about the United States and its foreign policy. The Russian president on one occasion drew an apparent parallel between what he described as an American trend toward unilateralism and the policies of the Third Reich.

In Potsdam, Germany, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei V. Lavrov expressed hope Wednesday that the summit would see “the continuation of dialogue and the advancement of projects that our two presidents have jointly proposed,” especially in the areas of nuclear proliferation and energy cooperation.

But Lavrov also dismissed repeated U.S. assurances that the proposed North Atlantic Treaty Organization missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic would not pose a threat to Russia.

“This global missile defense is being -- by accident or deliberately -- deployed around Russia,” Lavrov said in remarks reported by the RIA Novosti news agency. “I don’t think this is something Russia should take lightly, and I hope our U.S. partners respect our analysis.”

Observers praised Bush for trying to improve relations before they deteriorate further. “It’s absolutely the right thing to do to stop the dangerous dynamic of distrust that has developed,” said Carlos Pascual, a career diplomat who served under President Clinton and both Presidents Bush and now heads the foreign policy studies program at the Brookings Institution.

“There’s a danger we can each entrench ourselves in positions that are harder to get out of if we allow this dynamic to develop. Neither of us can frankly afford that.”

A senior Bush administration official said the agenda would include discussion of vexed topics, including relations with Iran and the disagreement over independence for Kosovo, the Serbian province now administered by the United Nations. But he said it also would include social outings. Guests at Kennebunkport have participated in fishing, tennis and golf.

“I doubt it’s all going to be business. Bush 41 is going to be there, and I’m sure he wants to be a good host,” the official said, using White House shorthand for the president’s father. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss internal administration deliberations in public.

The official said the president was expected to focus on areas in which the two countries still have common interests and to play down points of contention.

“Call it pragmatic or whatever, the focus is on dialogue. We want to find areas where we can work with these guys, but when we have differences, we’ll say so,” the official said. “The focus is on keeping talking to these guys.”

The Maine summit may be the last time the two leaders meet for a lengthy visit with unstructured time. In the fall, Putin is expected to be preoccupied with the Russian election cycle, which includes parliamentary elections in December and presidential elections to choose his successor in March, when Putin’s term will end. Bush finishes his tenure in January 2009.

The senior administration official said the leaders probably would discuss how to use their remaining time in office to seal their legacies.

“I think both presidents need this summit because before their terms expire they would like to register some positive moments in the bilateral relations to lay the foundation for future contacts,” said Andrei Kortunov, president of the New Eurasia Foundation, a Moscow-based think tank.

“Both leaders are already probably thinking about how they will go down in history, including the way they built relations between the two countries.”

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Times staff writers David Holley and Sergei L. Loiko in Moscow contributed to this report.