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The APEC summit ended yesterday in Santiago. During the summit, President Vladimir Putin and US President George Bush had a 40 minutes-long meeting. Nezavisimaya Gazeta reported that Putin realized that Bush "had expressed his concern about excessive centralization of power in Russia" only after the meeting. At least that was the impression created by an interview given by an anonymous high-ranking member of the American delegation to the media.
"The US president pointed out that the United States is concerned about the lack of balance between the branches of power and the excessive centralization of power in Russia," he said, "and asked Putin to explain what was really going on in the country and why he decided to take such steps." According to the source, Putin said he was "trying to create a democratic society taking into account Russias history and the specific problems facing Russia, an enormous country with many nationalities."
Yet this version contradicts comments by the Russian side. "We | Ads |  |
did not notice any concern in Bushs statements," Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said during a press conference in Santiago. "The presidents simply exchanged information about the situation in their countries."
There is most likely a third version of the story: Bush shared his concerns with Putin in such a soft tone that Putin missed the intention. The discrepancy between US presidents politeness in a personal conversation and the harshness of the official interpretation of its content does make sense. On the one hand, Bush protected himself from criticism by hard-liners in the US, but on the other hand he attempted to maintain a confiding atmosphere of an important dialogue with his Russian counterpart.
According to the American source, Bush and Putin created the foundation for future discussion of this issue. In other words, the Americans let everybody know that they can change the tone of the dialogue about thereforms in Russia whenever they deem it necessary.
MOCSOW, November 22 (RIA Novosti)
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