#4
Komsomolskaya Pravda
No. 210
November 15, 2001
[translation from RIA Novosti for personal use only]
IS RUSSIA READY FOR FRIENDSHIP WITH USA?
By Yuri SERGEYEV

The latest polls show that Russian society has split over attitude to the USA into two roughly equal parts. One half welcomes rapprochement, while the other half loathes it. Not that bad, for in the past the bulk of our people were firmly anti-American.

Yet the decision of Putin to virtually independently make a breakthrough in relations with the West was extremely courageous. The communists and their fellow travellers - so-called patriots - will certainly try to hinder the implementation of agreements reached in the USA. The defence industries and possibly the army and a part of the state apparatus will not be overjoyed either.

Who will support the agreements then? Businessmen who want broader markets, rightwing and centrist parties and movements, and students, that is, all those who want more democracy and market reforms without delay.

Vladimir Putin will find it difficult to implement his policy in conditions of such fragile balance. He needs a breakthrough at home, too. Before his visit to the USA, Putin was simply the chief executive. But the talks he had in the USA show that he is now claiming the role of the national political leader. And he will have to become such leader - or retreat.

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