PRESIDENT VLADIMIR PUTIN IS PLAINLY INTENT ON RESTORING RUSSIAN- AMERICAN RELATIONS, WHICH SUFFERED DUE TO MOSCOW'S STRONG OPPOSITION TO US ACTIONS IN IRAQ. BUT PUTIN HAS LACKED, AND STILL LACKS, PEOPLE WHO WOULD BE WILLING AND ABLE TO BUILD PARTNERSHIP RELATIONS.

President Vladimir Putin is plainly intent on restoring Russian- American relations, which suffered due to Moscow's strong opposition to US actions in Iraq. The message he sent to President George W. Bush last week was the first in several months to mention "strategic partnership" between the two states. Moreover, Putin affirms that in Russia-US relations "that which unites us far outweighs the issues on which we are still divided."

One could only be glad about this return to reality, were it not for one unfortunate circumstance. Putin has lacked, and still lacks, people who would be willing and able to build partnership relations with the US. Even his message to Bush was delivered by Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, who reportedly did not want to go to America at all and balked for as long as possible. At any rate, as far back as a few weeks ago, the ITAR-TASS state news agency quoted Defense Ministry sources as saying that Ivanov had declined a visit to the US. Observers drew a conclusion: the defense minister does not want to meet with aggressors, on principle. The Defense Ministry press service reported the minister's visit to Malaysia in advance, but it passed over his trip to America in silence.

Moreover, while halfway to Washington, the defense minister hastened to express doubts about whether effective cooperation between the two states is possible, especially in the area of missile defense. Ivanov noted: "There has been no significant progress in cooperation in this area on either the American or the Russian side so far. In such matters, it is impossible to expect any real results to speak of in a year or two. This process will take decades, at least." And Ivanov hinted at once that the cunning Americans would steal our intellectual property under the cover of cooperation: "This cooperation should not present itself as a process where 'each pulls the raisins from the other's bun'."

On the same day, the American president's decree on deploying a national missile defense was released, a process which will start as soon as next year. It should be acknowledged that so far, the US have been getting by successfully without Russian intellectual property in this endeavour. Moreover, the decree calls for involving America's "friends and partners" in cooperation on missile defense, and Russia is also referred to in this category in Washington. At the same time, it is said quite openly that cooperation in this area could become the basis for the whole structure of Russian-American relations. For it is no secret that talks on strategic arms cuts, which served as this basis until recently, have exhausted their capacity. The Russian- American Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty, recently ratified by the Duma, actually reserves the right for each side to be independent in determining the structure and dimensions of its nuclear forces. There is nothing more to discuss.

So now, when the Americans propose a certain option, the defense minister starts voicing doubts and setting down conditions. Meanwhile, the "agreement substance" mentioned by the president is an extremely sensitive and perishable product, as the latest events have shown. If it is entrusted to carriers like Sergei Ivanov, it will sour with no further ceremony.

(Translated by P. Pikhnovsky)

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