La Repubblica: Reconciliation with Europe can turn out for Bush with a split with Russia

The Kremlin is alarmed after the performance of the former American friend: the only good news is Washington's support when joining the WTO. "If the condition for dialogue is accusations against our democracy, then there will be no dialogue in Bratislava." Bush warning to Putin does not reach the houses of Russians. Radio and television are silent about calls for freedom of speech, to the legal state and the separation of powers, writes La Repubblica (translation on the website inopressa.ru ).

But the call of the American president to Europe to pose the problem of "democratic renewal" at the center of relations with Moscow strikes the Kremlin. After conciliatory statements the day before, no one expected the immediate attack of George Bush to his “friend Vladimir”. And so swiftly, at the first meeting of the European tour, "not to place and almost associating Russia with the enemies of the West."

Putin is listening to an indictment in his office, listens to congratulations and the American “Welcome” towards Ukraine and Georgia, then calls the head of the administration Dmitry Medvedev. He is beside himself. “They decided to isolate us,” he muttered, one of the advisers of Putin said. “Bush wants to talk to me not as the US president, but on behalf of the whole West. He probably forgot that without us none of his international goals is feasible.” He calls the Minister of Foreign Affairs Lavrov, who is on a visit to Kyiv - it cannot be allowed that the new President of Ukraine Yushchenko meet with Bush before he talked with Moscow, the newspaper writes.

From the capital of Ukraine, after failure last weekend in Georgia, bad news also comes. The creation of a "unified economic space" with Belarus and Kazakhstan has been stopped, the leader of the "Orange Revolution" prefers the EU, NATO and WTO. Thus, the "soft plan" of Moscow, prepared for the summit on Thursday, is changing.

Ton, recognized at Putin's headquarters, will be like a "cold world". And since Bush decided to "speak aloud", the Kremlin also releases hawks.

“For four years with Putin's reforms, everything was fine,” Ivan Safranchuk tells agencies from the Center for Defense Information, “and now that the situation in Iraq has changed, Washington unexpectedly discovers that there is no freedom in Russia. Obviously, to reconcile with Europe, he first had to quarrel with Moscow.”

A few minutes later, the turn of Vyacheslav Nikonov, the grandson of Molotov and the authorized political scientist of the president come. “We have no problem with democracy,” he says, while Putin calls on the army to strengthen the struggle with Chechen terrorism, “and everyone is compromising on human rights. If the prerequisites are such, then in Bratislava, Putin will require explanations about the commitment of US international law.”

“Bush was stuck on the old ideological arsenal of Carter,” says the faithful supporter of President Armen Oganesyan. “But the danger lies in the inability to understand the present: after all, the UN did not allow anyone to decide who is a democrat on Earth and who was not, especially after the elections in Iraq and Kosovo, and the world has already determined the quality of US election methods.”

Izvestia and TASS still give friendly Sunday statements. “We are friends, and our relationship does not require improvement,” Bush said then “I just want to ask Vladimir why in recent months he made such decisions, and not others.”

“Something happened,” they say in the Kremlin, “now you need to understand whether mutual trust is preserved with the discrepancies of interests.” And they precede the summit on Thursday: "Putin will ask Bush not to intervene in the internal affairs of Russia, not to do the case of Yukos, not to continue the way of democratic revolutions by financing the export of Georgian and Ukrainian experience in Moldova, Belarus and Central Asia."

The strong topics of Moscow are oil supplies, stability in the former Soviet republics, relations with Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia and China. The last stage in the trip of reconciliation with Europe can be the start of a split with Russia for Bush, the newspaper writes.

"Bush has already said that on May 9, he will be in Moscow at the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the victory over Nazism. But the meeting in Bratislav is complicated. Some in the White House accuse us of the forbidden weapons of Syria, of the nuclear assistance of Tehran, in arming of China and Venezuela and a double game with Iraq. If this wing is the upper He will find friends from the former republics of the USSR, he will find that without us the world in the Middle East and security will remain a dream, ”they warn in the Kremlin.