Word: putin
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...Bush's visit for a summit meeting with the leaders of the 15 nations in the European Union, the most significant street protest was a mass mooning of the President. But once Bush had left for Warsaw, and then for a meeting in Ljubljana, Slovenia, with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the mood turned ugly. The now familiar demonstrators against globalization tossed cobblestones at police, burned cars and smashed windows. Unable to move freely through the streets, the European leaders were forced to hold their customary dinner in the cordoned-off conference center rather than a classy restaurant. And police opened...
...Blinken was talking about Washington's old allies in Western Europe. The surprise of the trip was the apparent warmth between Bush and Putin. Sure, both sides wanted their first summit to be a success and so played down their old disagreements on missile defense and on Bush's determination to extend NATO membership to the Baltic states--and hence to Russia's border. But the post-meeting atmosphere was cozier than many had expected. Bush said he found Putin to be "very straightforward and trustworthy." "Everybody tries to read the body language," said the President. "Mark me down...
...asked Secretary of State Colin Powell and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to work with their Russian counterparts on a "new security framework." Those talks won't be easy; Washington may have changed the dismissive, almost contemptuous tone in which it discussed Moscow earlier in the year, but Putin has deeply held positions on missile defense and NATO enlargement--and powerful constituencies who will see that he sticks to them...
...President Putin appeared in the end to harmonize his positions with those of the Europeans more successfully than President Bush...
...President Bush is the one coming in wanting to change the status quo. The Europeans and the Russians are much more guarded, less eager to change. So it was really by dint of their starting positions that Putin was closer to Europeans...