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Russia ready to work with US on all issues: Putin
May 22, 2003
AFP
Russian President Vladimir Putin said he would work with his US counterpart
George W. Bush on all issues in a bid to repair relations marred by
disagreements over Iraq.
Putin said in a message that international disagreements between the two
leaders were outweighed by a common vision on global stability -- the clearest
statement yet from Moscow that it wanted to leave the Iraqi dispute behind.
The statement was delivered to the White House by Russian Defense Minister
Sergei Ivanov and the ITAR-TASS news agency reported from Washington that Bush
welcomed Putin's assurances.
The exchange came ahead of a meeting between Bush and Putin in Saint
Petersburg, the Russian leader's native city, on June 1 -- the first
face-to-face talks between the two since the Iraq war.
"Russia is prepared to develop cooperation with the United States in all
spheres," the statement said.
Putin told Bush "that there are many more things that unite us than
questions that bring us apart."
ITAR-TASS said Ivanov -- seen as one of the closest confidants of Putin in
Moscow -- talked with Bush for 20 minutes. US National Security Adviser
Condoleezza Rice attended the meeting.
"On the whole, Ivanov's US interlocutors assessed the conversation as
very positive and warm," ITAR-TASS said in its dispatch from Washington.
There was no immediate official reaction from the Bush administration to
Putin's message.
It came ahead of a key UN Security Council vote on Iraq that at one stage
threatened to further spoil relations between Moscow and Washington.
After initially balking at the idea, Russia along with its UN Security
Council ally France announced Wednesday it would support a US-backed resolution
lifting economic sanctions against Iraq.
The draft would immediately lift the sanctions imposed on Baghdad in 1990 and
put its oil revenues into a new development fund to be held by the central bank
and spent on reconstruction at the direction of the occupying powers.
It also calls on US and British forces to help set up an interim Iraqi-run
administration until "an internationally recognized, representative
government is established by the people of Iraq."
The vote is set to be held Thursday in New York.
The announcement by France and Russia -- along with fellow Iraq-war opponent
Germany -- marked an easing of tensions between the pro- and anti- Iraq war
camps that threatened to isolate Britain and the United States from Europe.
Putin offered Russian support following the September 11, 2001 attacks in the
United States.
But those ties soured when Bush set his sights on Iraq -- Moscow's Soviet-era
ally where it has major oil interests whose status remains unclear after the
war.
US officials seemed confident that Moscow was moving back into Washington's
camp and would not hold a grudge about the campaign.
"It is clear that the Russians have made a decision to look forward and
find a common approach" on international issues like Iraq, said a senior US
official in Moscow.
"What seems to be behind us is defining the legitimacy of the war,"
the official said.
He added that Washington was not concerned that Moscow had been building a
united diplomatic bloc with Paris and Berlin before the Iraqi campaign.
"We want Russia to have a good relationship with Europe and we do not
see this as a competition for Russia's affections," said the US official.
Some analysts here suggested that Putin's shift to the European peace camp
and current bid to repair relations with Washington may hurt Moscow's standing
on the international arena by betraying an indecisive policy approach.
"Putin was playing a dangerous diplomatic game," said Viktor
Kremenyuk, deputy director of the USA-Canada institute.
"He assumed that the rift between Europe and the United States was more
serious than it really was -- these are very old allies" who can overcome
the Iraqi dispute quickly, he said.
"Playing such a game could lose Russia its credibility."
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