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Bush arrives in Russia for historic summit
May 24, 2002
AFP

US President George W. Bush arrived in Moscow for a historic summit aimed at taking a new step on disarmament and shaping a 21st-century partnership for countries once bitter foes.

Security was stepped up across the Russian capital and one newspaper cautioned Muscovites to watch for US secret service snipers as Russia prepared for Bush's first visit with pomp befitting a history-making event.

"I am optimistic not only because of the documents that we will see signed, but also because of the real, mutual economic interests finally unfolding," said liberal lawmaker Irina Khakamada.

"For the first time, the Kremlin is taking the lead in foreign policy instead of following public opinion polls, which still do not trust the US," she said.

The fifth meeting between Bush and Putin on Friday will be crowned by a Kremlin signature of the first nuclear disarmament treaty between the two sides in a decade, along with a broader strategic partnership agreement.

The fruit of painstaking work that threatened to collapse until the very end, the arms treaty slashes both sides' nuclear arsenals by two-thirds over 10 years. It should leave each side with between 1,700 and 2,200 warheads each.

The two leaders will also sign documents cementing their unexpectedly strong cooperation in the fight against terrorism as well as a key policy paper aimed at coordinating their energy policies.

"For the first time, we are moving from relations based on deterrence to one of a real partnership of equal partners," said parliament's foreign affairs chairman Dmitry Rogozin.

Bush's visit has been celebrated by the Kremlin as a vivid reminder of how Putin has managed to drag Russia out of its post-Soviet malaise since becoming president two years ago and turn it into a trustworthy partner for the West.

But this view has not won unanimous support from Russians hardened by decades of the cynicism that became entrenched during the Soviet era.

"What is Bush bringing here? Mostly things that he needs for himself," the liberal Vedomosti business daily remarked.

The respected paper said Bush's team would try to tap into Russia's lucrative oil and natural gas market without offering Russians assistance to export their goods to the equally lucrative US market.

"There was hope that Bush could positively surprise by announcing the revocation of the Jackson-Venik treaty, or by finally recognizing Russia as a market economy," said investment bank strategist Roland Nash.

But US diplomats said that "hiccups" have prevented the US Congress from lifting the 1974 law penalizing Moscow for its restrictions on the movement of Soviet Jews, putting breaks on favorable investment terms in Russia.

"Unfortunately, small-minded men in the US Congress have once again prevented either," Nash wrote.

Meanwhile the Communists and their nationalist supporters attacked the Russia-US disarmament treaty as a humiliation for Moscow that would leave Washington with a massive advantage in nuclear and other defense potential.

Putin is trying to turn Russia "into a US satellite," grumbled Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov as 250 of his supporters picketed the US embassy compound, some holding signs that read "The Destruction of Our Defense."

But the Russian army took a friendlier approach, with the official defense ministry newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda running a cozy interview with the US president under the headline: "George Bush: We are no longer enemies."

"Russian generals are being turned face-forward toward the West," observed Izvestia daily in an article explaining that the Russian brass was now being briefed about their new role in an era of cooperation with Washington.

And even firebrand nationalists like Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who only years ago spoke of expanding the Russian empire from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean, said he was "very optimistic" about the Bush summit.

"I had criticized a policy of sucking up to Washington in the past but since September 11, they have themselves sought to cooperate with us. Why should we push them away?"

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