Word: putin
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...incoming rogue ICBMs it is supposed to obliterate don't yet exist. But Bush's insistence on deploying a Son of Star Wars a.s.a.p. formed the edgy subtext of his meetings with European leaders in Genoa and the top talking point for his second sitdown with Russian President Vladimir Putin...
Standing in the way is Putin. Russia, like China--with whom Putin last week signed a treaty of "friendship forever" that aligns them politically against missile defense--charges that the U.S. shield will wreck nuclear stability and spark a new arms race. More practically, Russia is the other party to the ABM treaty. The tests the Pentagon has in mind will violate its terms "within months, not years," says a freshly circulated State Department memo. Officials talk of deployment as early as 2004. That schedule turns the screws on Putin to modify the treaty to suit Washington right away...
Candidate Bush chastised Bill Clinton for turning Russian-American relations into a game of personal chemistry. That was forgotten when Bush first met Putin last month and gushed that he had looked into the former KGB man's eyes "to get a sense of his soul." Bush believes his charm and persuasiveness will move his pal Putin to let the U.S. do what it wants. As an adviser puts it, the Administration is going to "work it and work it and work it and work it" until Putin gives...
Meanwhile, Putin continues to mix his signals. He has laid out a modest framework for "modernizing" ABM, and ladled on some soft soap before setting off for Genoa last week, calling Dubya "a little bit sentimental." But Putin has also demonstrated why he won't be easy to roll. Besides inking the treaty with China, he has repeatedly warned that Russia will cram more warheads atop its missiles if Bush abandons the ABM treaty...
...Andrew Meier: We saw a rather bizarre example of President Vladimir Putin's bifurcated foreign policy at work during her visit. Just as he concluded a friendship pact with China that expressed opposition to missile defense before flying off to Genoa where he was all smiles with President Bush, this week saw Moscow combining the Rice visit with a 6,000-mile train trip to Moscow by North Korea's leader Kim Jong Il. It was a bizarre spectacle - Kim traveled across Russia's far east on a train that included 21 Japanese-made armored carriages, with darkened windows...