We will not participate in any crusades, in any holy alliances
As Tensions Rise, U.S. and Moscow Falter on Trade
By JIM RUTENBERG and ANDREW E. KRAMER
The New York Times
July 16, 2006
STRELNA, Russia, Sunday, July 16 — President Bush and President Vladimir V. Putin announced that they had failed to come to an agreement on Russia’s accession to the World Trade Organization, and aides said the deal, which had been expected as early as this weekend, was not likely for months.
At a news conference that offered a somewhat rocky prelude to the annual summit meeting of the Group of 8 economic powers, Mr. Putin and Mr. Bush also differed over Iraq, the state of Russia’s democracy and Israel’s military campaign in Lebanon.
Though they had a few positive announcements as well — agreeing on initiatives to combat nuclear terrorism and share civilian nuclear material and technology — overall the appearance highlighted growing tensions between former cold war rivals now jockeying for global position.
In the sharpest exchange, Mr. Bush said he had told Mr. Putin during a private dinner here Friday night about “my desire to promote institutional change in parts of the world like Iraq — where there is a free press and free religion — and I told him that a lot of people in our country would hope Russia would do the same thing.”
Mr. Putin, standing bolt upright in a dark blue suit, responded dryly, “We certainly would not want to have the same kind of democracy as they have in Iraq, I will tell you quite honestly” — a clear dig at the challenges still facing the American-supported government there. Mr. Bush, in a light blue suit and standing more casually than his counterpart, turned to face Mr. Putin, smiled and said, almost to himself, “Just wait.”
Both men played down any friction, saying it was indicative of a frank relationship that remains friendly in spite of the areas where their national interests diverge.
Russia, the host of the Group of 8 summit meeting for the first time, has set an agenda seeking common cause on protecting energy supplies and developing new ones, improving national education systems and combating infectious disease. But exchanges of military fire between Israel and Hezbollah intruded, and an agreement was reached even before the meeting that the attending nations would draft some sort of joint position intended to head off a broader regional conflict.
All sides expected some tension between the United States, which has expressed support for Israel’s need to defend itself, and many of the other participating countries, whose leaders have deemed Israel’s force excessive and have called for a cease-fire. The leaders also are to discuss the dual nuclear threats in Iran and North Korea.
Mr. Putin had hoped to kick off the summit meeting, to begin Sunday at the palace erected by Peter the Great nearly 300 years ago in this St. Petersburg suburb, with an announcement that the United States would lift its objection to Russia’s accession into the World Trade Organization. Mr. Putin wants membership as a symbol of the new position of Russia, flush with oil money, in the global economy.
Negotiations between Russian and American trade representatives went into the early morning on Saturday, but could not break through impasses over financial services, food imports and, to a lesser extent, intellectual property rights.
“We’re tough negotiators,” Mr. Bush said, adding that the United States wanted to ensure a deal is reached that Congress will approve. He added that the two sides were close and that news reports had wrongly inflated expectations.
In a briefing that followed the joint appearance by the two presidents, the United States trade representative, Susan Schwab, said it would probably be months before agreement could be reached. Asked if Russia had been correct to believe that a breakthrough was possible by this weekend, Ms. Schwab, who had been involved in the negotiations, said, “I think both sides would have preferred if we had an agreement.”
Her Russian counterparts blamed the United States, complaining in interviews that the sticking points revolved largely around what they considered the small issue of food imports, and the American side’s objection to having Russian inspectors visit farms in the United States.
But Mr. Bush and Mr. Putin agreed to start talks to pave the way for a deal allowing nuclear waste generated from American-produced plutonium from around the world to be stored in Russia — a potential shift in American policy that would be lucrative for Russia. The United States would gain access to Russian uranium. They also agreed to combat the potential spread of nuclear materials to terrorists, a sign that the onetime nuclear rivals now see a common foe in extremists who have made both nations their targets.
Russia analysts called those agreements significant. Graham Allison, a nuclear expert at Harvard who is here monitoring the talks, said the nuclear agreements could have a serious impact in limiting the possibility for rogue states to develop nuclear weapons. “It’s the beginning of something real,” he said.
Mr. Putin and Mr. Bush offered no breakthroughs on a common approach to reining in the nuclear ambitions of North Korea and Iran; the United States has been calling for a tougher line, while Russia has been advocating a more delicate approach.
Mr. Putin, whose government’s cooperation with Iran has rankled the White House, repeatedly referred to the Iranians as “our partners.”
When a reporter asked a two-part question about whether there were any breakthroughs in countering nuclear proliferation and how he rated the state of United States-Russian relations, Mr. Putin began, “We will not participate in any crusades, in any holy alliances,” which analysts here took as a signal to Iran that Russia was not fully aligned with Mr. Bush, or as a dig at Mr. Bush’s campaign to spread democracy in the Middle East, or both.
But Mr. Putin continued, “Our common goal is to make the world a more secure place, and certainly we’ll be working with all our partners, including the United States, in order to address this problem.”
Asked what he took Mr. Putin to have meant by “holy alliance” and “crusade,” Stephen J. Hadley, the national security adviser, said during a news briefing here, “You know, I asked myself the same question.”
Mr. Hadley said the president did not specifically broach the subject that most severely divides the leaders in their approach to Iran: the potential imposition of sanctions if it does not give up its nuclear ambitions. Mr. Putin had sidestepped the question of sanctions.
Yet, the Russian leader emphasized the need for cooperation as the G-8 meetings begin.
“If we elaborate common approaches to this difficult problem, we will see to it that our joint decisions are fulfilled,” Mr. Putin said. “This is what we said honestly and directly to our Iranian partners.”
Mr. Putin and Mr. Bush agreed that Hezbollah was the provocateur in the escalating crisis in the Middle East. “I agree with the premise that it is absolutely unacceptable to try and reach this or that goal,” Mr. Putin said, “through abductions, through carrying out strikes against an independent state from the territory of another state.”
Mr. Putin went on to chide Israel. “At the same time, we work under the assumption that the use of force should be balanced,” he said. “Escalation of violence, in our opinion, will not yield positive results.”
In contrast, Mr. Bush declined to criticize Israel, saying firmly: “In my judgment, the best way to stop the violence is to understand why the violence occurred in the first place. And that’s because Hezbollah has been launching rocket attacks out of Lebanon into Israel.” He blamed Syria for supporting Hezbollah and called upon its leadership to intervene.
Pressed at a late-night news conference on his stance on Israel, Mr. Putin said he wished the conflict could be resolved by peaceful means. The Russians, he said, “do get the impression that the aims of Israeli go beyond just recovering their kidnapped soldiers,” according to a translator. He did not elaborate. Both leaders said their relationship was stronger than many acknowledge.
“We’ve got people in Russia questioning U.S. motives, people in America questioning Russian motives,” Mr. Bush said. “But that’s what happens when you have — when you’re big nations that have got influence, where you’ve got leaders willing to make tough decisions.”
Mr. Bush and Mr. Putin’s joint appearance came after a much friendlier social call the evening before, when the first couples had a private dinner at the palace.
Both men indicated that though it was supposed to be a social call, the conversation veered into more serious matters, and Mr. Bush said they discussed their governing philosophies. “I don’t expect Russia to look like the United States,” Mr. Bush said. “As Vladimir pointedly reminded me last night, we have a different history, different traditions.”
Meanwhile, in downtown St. Petersburg, protesters criticized both men. At one end of Nevsky Prospekt, the city’s historic main boulevard, protesters gathered, chanting, “We need another Russia and Russia without Putin.” Some held signs denouncing the United States and the NATO expansion it backs.
As the demonstrators tried to march, lines of riot police officers moved in. Wearing helmets and some with shields, they beat several young men and dragged them away to waiting buses. The first two men arrested were punched by plainclothes officers waiting in a bus.
By JIM RUTENBERG and ANDREW E. KRAMER
The New York Times
July 16, 2006
STRELNA, Russia, Sunday, July 16 — President Bush and President Vladimir V. Putin announced that they had failed to come to an agreement on Russia’s accession to the World Trade Organization, and aides said the deal, which had been expected as early as this weekend, was not likely for months.
At a news conference that offered a somewhat rocky prelude to the annual summit meeting of the Group of 8 economic powers, Mr. Putin and Mr. Bush also differed over Iraq, the state of Russia’s democracy and Israel’s military campaign in Lebanon.
Though they had a few positive announcements as well — agreeing on initiatives to combat nuclear terrorism and share civilian nuclear material and technology — overall the appearance highlighted growing tensions between former cold war rivals now jockeying for global position.
In the sharpest exchange, Mr. Bush said he had told Mr. Putin during a private dinner here Friday night about “my desire to promote institutional change in parts of the world like Iraq — where there is a free press and free religion — and I told him that a lot of people in our country would hope Russia would do the same thing.”
Mr. Putin, standing bolt upright in a dark blue suit, responded dryly, “We certainly would not want to have the same kind of democracy as they have in Iraq, I will tell you quite honestly” — a clear dig at the challenges still facing the American-supported government there. Mr. Bush, in a light blue suit and standing more casually than his counterpart, turned to face Mr. Putin, smiled and said, almost to himself, “Just wait.”
Both men played down any friction, saying it was indicative of a frank relationship that remains friendly in spite of the areas where their national interests diverge.
Russia, the host of the Group of 8 summit meeting for the first time, has set an agenda seeking common cause on protecting energy supplies and developing new ones, improving national education systems and combating infectious disease. But exchanges of military fire between Israel and Hezbollah intruded, and an agreement was reached even before the meeting that the attending nations would draft some sort of joint position intended to head off a broader regional conflict.
All sides expected some tension between the United States, which has expressed support for Israel’s need to defend itself, and many of the other participating countries, whose leaders have deemed Israel’s force excessive and have called for a cease-fire. The leaders also are to discuss the dual nuclear threats in Iran and North Korea.
Mr. Putin had hoped to kick off the summit meeting, to begin Sunday at the palace erected by Peter the Great nearly 300 years ago in this St. Petersburg suburb, with an announcement that the United States would lift its objection to Russia’s accession into the World Trade Organization. Mr. Putin wants membership as a symbol of the new position of Russia, flush with oil money, in the global economy.
Negotiations between Russian and American trade representatives went into the early morning on Saturday, but could not break through impasses over financial services, food imports and, to a lesser extent, intellectual property rights.
“We’re tough negotiators,” Mr. Bush said, adding that the United States wanted to ensure a deal is reached that Congress will approve. He added that the two sides were close and that news reports had wrongly inflated expectations.
In a briefing that followed the joint appearance by the two presidents, the United States trade representative, Susan Schwab, said it would probably be months before agreement could be reached. Asked if Russia had been correct to believe that a breakthrough was possible by this weekend, Ms. Schwab, who had been involved in the negotiations, said, “I think both sides would have preferred if we had an agreement.”
Her Russian counterparts blamed the United States, complaining in interviews that the sticking points revolved largely around what they considered the small issue of food imports, and the American side’s objection to having Russian inspectors visit farms in the United States.
But Mr. Bush and Mr. Putin agreed to start talks to pave the way for a deal allowing nuclear waste generated from American-produced plutonium from around the world to be stored in Russia — a potential shift in American policy that would be lucrative for Russia. The United States would gain access to Russian uranium. They also agreed to combat the potential spread of nuclear materials to terrorists, a sign that the onetime nuclear rivals now see a common foe in extremists who have made both nations their targets.
Russia analysts called those agreements significant. Graham Allison, a nuclear expert at Harvard who is here monitoring the talks, said the nuclear agreements could have a serious impact in limiting the possibility for rogue states to develop nuclear weapons. “It’s the beginning of something real,” he said.
Mr. Putin and Mr. Bush offered no breakthroughs on a common approach to reining in the nuclear ambitions of North Korea and Iran; the United States has been calling for a tougher line, while Russia has been advocating a more delicate approach.
Mr. Putin, whose government’s cooperation with Iran has rankled the White House, repeatedly referred to the Iranians as “our partners.”
When a reporter asked a two-part question about whether there were any breakthroughs in countering nuclear proliferation and how he rated the state of United States-Russian relations, Mr. Putin began, “We will not participate in any crusades, in any holy alliances,” which analysts here took as a signal to Iran that Russia was not fully aligned with Mr. Bush, or as a dig at Mr. Bush’s campaign to spread democracy in the Middle East, or both.
But Mr. Putin continued, “Our common goal is to make the world a more secure place, and certainly we’ll be working with all our partners, including the United States, in order to address this problem.”
Asked what he took Mr. Putin to have meant by “holy alliance” and “crusade,” Stephen J. Hadley, the national security adviser, said during a news briefing here, “You know, I asked myself the same question.”
Mr. Hadley said the president did not specifically broach the subject that most severely divides the leaders in their approach to Iran: the potential imposition of sanctions if it does not give up its nuclear ambitions. Mr. Putin had sidestepped the question of sanctions.
Yet, the Russian leader emphasized the need for cooperation as the G-8 meetings begin.
“If we elaborate common approaches to this difficult problem, we will see to it that our joint decisions are fulfilled,” Mr. Putin said. “This is what we said honestly and directly to our Iranian partners.”
Mr. Putin and Mr. Bush agreed that Hezbollah was the provocateur in the escalating crisis in the Middle East. “I agree with the premise that it is absolutely unacceptable to try and reach this or that goal,” Mr. Putin said, “through abductions, through carrying out strikes against an independent state from the territory of another state.”
Mr. Putin went on to chide Israel. “At the same time, we work under the assumption that the use of force should be balanced,” he said. “Escalation of violence, in our opinion, will not yield positive results.”
In contrast, Mr. Bush declined to criticize Israel, saying firmly: “In my judgment, the best way to stop the violence is to understand why the violence occurred in the first place. And that’s because Hezbollah has been launching rocket attacks out of Lebanon into Israel.” He blamed Syria for supporting Hezbollah and called upon its leadership to intervene.
Pressed at a late-night news conference on his stance on Israel, Mr. Putin said he wished the conflict could be resolved by peaceful means. The Russians, he said, “do get the impression that the aims of Israeli go beyond just recovering their kidnapped soldiers,” according to a translator. He did not elaborate. Both leaders said their relationship was stronger than many acknowledge.
“We’ve got people in Russia questioning U.S. motives, people in America questioning Russian motives,” Mr. Bush said. “But that’s what happens when you have — when you’re big nations that have got influence, where you’ve got leaders willing to make tough decisions.”
Mr. Bush and Mr. Putin’s joint appearance came after a much friendlier social call the evening before, when the first couples had a private dinner at the palace.
Both men indicated that though it was supposed to be a social call, the conversation veered into more serious matters, and Mr. Bush said they discussed their governing philosophies. “I don’t expect Russia to look like the United States,” Mr. Bush said. “As Vladimir pointedly reminded me last night, we have a different history, different traditions.”
Meanwhile, in downtown St. Petersburg, protesters criticized both men. At one end of Nevsky Prospekt, the city’s historic main boulevard, protesters gathered, chanting, “We need another Russia and Russia without Putin.” Some held signs denouncing the United States and the NATO expansion it backs.
As the demonstrators tried to march, lines of riot police officers moved in. Wearing helmets and some with shields, they beat several young men and dragged them away to waiting buses. The first two men arrested were punched by plainclothes officers waiting in a bus.
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