| Bush still trusts Putin If it were correct to ask who won the summit in Bratislava - Russia or the United States - I would risk calling the Russian president the winner on points. Despite George Bush's repeated statements that he would directly raise the issue of the failure of democracy in Russia with Vladimir Putin, the press heard nothing of the kind from the American president yesterday. On the contrary, Bush radiated satisfaction and even pride from the assurances he received from “friend Vladimir” that Russia remains committed to democracy and will not change the choice it made 14 years ago. Vremya Novostey's forecast in yesterday's issue about what Putin's answers would be turned out to be accurate.
During the entire press conference, it was not possible to push either Bush or Putin from these positions. They both emphasized their commitment to shared values. But for some reason Bush did this somehow especially persistently, as if apologizing for something. “Vladimir is a person who if he says “yes”, then it means “yes”, and if “no”, then it means “no”... Therefore, if he said that there will be no rollback from democracy, it means that he it won’t. And I’m grateful to my friend for that,” said George W. Bush. And somehow he casually noted that democracy means freedom of the press and the rule of law. But he immediately added that he appreciates Putin’s activities in Russia during the transition period, taking into account the peculiarities of this country.
Bush still had to utter words that expressed doubt that everything was wonderful in Russia. An Interfax agency correspondent rather harshly asked the US President, who spoke about the lack of freedom of the press in Russia, whether he knew that Russian television had covered in detail the recent protests of Russians. The correspondent reproached President Putin no less harshly, asking why he does not publicly demand an explanation from Bush regarding the dismissal of American journalists for criticizing the current US administration.
Here the American president had to answer. “We live in a transparent country where everything is done on the basis of the law,” he said. “It’s not the authorities who fire us, but private owners, producers, editors.” This, according to the US President, demonstrates the responsibility of journalists for their work, and if the authorities violate the law, then there is an independent judicial system that monitors compliance with the constitution. "If you think you're free, that's an interesting observation, that's good," Bush told a meticulous Russian reporter.
Vladimir Putin answered his compatriot’s question extremely simply. “I’m not the minister of propaganda. Yes, our rallies were covered, and this indicates the existence of freedom of the press,” he said, “and we talked about this with Bush.” “But I don’t think it’s necessary to highlight these problems so as not to spoil our relations, in the development of which we are so interested,” Putin noted, not without magnanimity. But the Russian president still had to work a little as a propagandist in the field of comparative political science: “I would like to draw your attention to the fact that the leaders of the regions of the Russian Federation will not be appointed by the president, they are presented for voting in regional parliaments, which are elected by direct secret vote of the population. This is essentially an electoral system that is successfully used in the United States itself at the national level and is not considered undemocratic.” Moreover, it turned out that foreign misunderstanding of the processes inside Russia is due to the fact that opponents of recent reforms have more money. “Those who are “against” are richer than those who are “for.” They have the opportunity to disseminate their opinions in the media,” President Putin said.
President Bush, answering questions from journalists, was quite nervous. Sometimes you could catch his glance at his wife Laura, who was sitting in the front row. Bush seemed to seek her support. Putin had no one to look to for salvation - for some reason Lyudmila Putina was not at the press conference. All members of the Russian delegation sat in her place - Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, Security Council Secretary Igor Ivanov, head of the Kremlin administration Dmitry Medvedev and presidential aide Sergei Prikhodko.
Yesterday afternoon, during his speech in the central square of Bratislava in front of thousands of local residents, the US President predicted that the people of Moldova and even Belarus, following Georgia and Ukraine, would soon use their chance for a democratic choice. These stories are of great concern to Moscow. There was no “special discussion” about the situation in the post-Soviet space at the Bratislava summit, but there was a principled conversation between the two presidents about how the world should develop, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said yesterday. He noted that Vladimir Putin found “complete agreement” on the part of his interlocutor with how political processes should develop in the post-Soviet space. “This applies to both Moldova and the Central Asian republics of the CIS,” the minister explained and emphasized that on this issue the presidents of the two countries found “mutual understanding about the need to act transparently.”
Everything else from Moscow’s point of view went just fine. As Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov emphasized, despite speculation, there will be no mutual inspections of nuclear facilities of the two countries. Guarantees have been received from the United States regarding the achievement of agreements on Russia's accession to the WTO this year on the terms of reasonable, as Vladimir Putin put it, compromises. Significant changes are outlined in the development of the Russian-American energy dialogue. Putin managed not to comment in any way on Bush's statement that he had received clear assurances from the Russian leader that Iran should not possess nuclear weapons. The Russian President mentioned only North Korea in this sense.
An agreement was also signed on man-portable air defense systems (MANPADS), which are very dangerous in the hands of terrorists. Sergei Ivanov said that from now on “the parties will inform each other where, why and in what quantities Russian and American MANPADS are sent.” “Today, practically only two countries produce this very dangerous type of weapon; in the hands of terrorists it poses a terrible threat,” - - Minister Ivanov emphasized. He noted that, by agreement, the governments of Russia and the United States will influence “the states that have reserves of MANPADS, and there are a lot of them.” The Russian Minister of Defense also noted that for the first time, representatives of the defense departments and intelligence services of Russia and the United States have agreed. establish an exchange of information about unconventional explosive devices.
George and Vladimir parted, exchanging a firm handshake like true friends. Arkady DUBNOV, Bratislava |
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