Word: putin
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...After a tense press conference with Putin, Bush was happy to be headed home and worked out his post-travel weariness onboard Air Force One. Was this kinder, gentler Bush just for show, or is the President really serious about setting a new tone? Europeans have reason to be skeptical. Last week's rhetoric of shared values and a common way forward sounded a lot like the rhetoric of Bush's previous fence-mending trips. And Bush himself seemed to signal that not all that much had changed. When asked about the "old and new Rumsfeld" - a reference...
...listened as Chirac explained why lifting the arms embargo on China was a good idea; he listened as German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder argued that the U.S. must be more engaged in trying to convince Iran to drop its nuclear program; and he listened as Russian President Vladimir Putin batted back concerns about creeping autocracy in the Kremlin. Bush came to Europe, heard the views, but was he conquered by the arguments...
...hardest conversation of all was with Putin. During a speech in Brussels, Bush said that "all European countries should place democratic reform at the heart of their dialogue with Russia." So when the two leaders met later in the week in Bratislava, Slovakia, there was no chummy back-slapping. Putin was defensive, deflecting concerns about the Kremlin's crackdown on the media by pointing out that reporters from TV network cbs had been fired in the U.S., too. The accusation - no American reporters have been fired by the White House - confused Bush and reinforced the Administration view that Putin sometimes...
George Bush knew Vladimir Putin would be defensive when Bush brought up the pace of democratic reform in Russia in their private meeting at the end of Bush's four-day, three-city tour of Europe. But when Bush talked about the Kremlin's crackdown on the media and explained that democracies require a free press, the Russian leader gave a rebuttal that left the President nonplussed. If the press was so free in the U.S., Putin asked, then why had those reporters at CBS lost their jobs? Bush was openmouthed. "Putin thought we'd fired Dan Rather," says...
...UNCRITICAL OF WHAT MANY SEE AS RUSSIAN PRESIDENT VLADIMIR PUTIN'S MOVES TOWARD AUTHORITARIANISM? We all want to see a strong, prosperous and democratic Russia. I think President Putin is on the right path to get there...