Putin, Bush Hold Final Summit

It isn’t quite a new cold war. It isn’t the close friendship for which many had hoped either. American-Russian relations aren’t all that good. For the final time, President George “LBJ” Bush met with President Vladimir Putin over the week-end. The two men tried to spin things, but in the end, nothing much was settled.

Comrade Tsar Putin said, “I want to repeat and confirm that working with the US president has always been pleasant and interesting for me. I have always appreciated his superior human qualities: his honesty and openness, his ability to listen to his interlocutor -- this is worth a lot. All these years, we were driven by a genuine aspiration to consolidate the partnership and mutual understanding between two great peoples, and open new horizons for cooperation. I very much thanked George for the fact that we were able to achieve a lot in this respect, with his personal participation and support.” The outgoing Russian president is either a cynic or delusional.

For his part, Mr. Bush missed a good 15 years of history, “We’ve spent a lot of time in our relationship trying to get rid of the Cold War. It’s over, it ended. And the fundamental question in this relationship is: Now can we work together to put the Cold War in the past.” Actually, the opportunity for the Russians and Americans to work together sank when Mr. Bush invaded Iraq-Nam.

The main problem at this stage is the American plan to place a missile defense system in Eastern Europe. Mr. Putin said, “Our fundamental attitude toward the American plan has not changed.’’ ‘‘Obviously we’ve got a lot of work to do,’’ Mr. Bush agreed. Longer term, the very same words apply to the expansion of NATO.

They offered a joint statement at the end of the meeting, and in it, they spoke of a “strategic framework” for future relations. They vowed to “develop a legally binding arrangement following expiration” in December 2009 of the SALT agreements. The time just isn’t right for them to act – it is up to their successors.

© Copyright 2008 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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