Word: putin
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...three generations of Bushes gathered at Camp David last week, the conversation turned to Dubya's five-day, five-country tour, which will culminate in a face-to-face session with Russian President Vladimir Putin Saturday in Ljubljana, Slovenia. The father, says a source close to the former President, has been thinking back on his own maiden voyage to Europe as President in May 1989--and recalling how valuable intelligence can be before a summit. "The old man had been getting signals from people in Europe," the source says, and gave his son "a little dose of realism" about...
...elsewhere on his trip, Bush will face European Union members who are ideologically alien to him (11 of 15 E.U. governments are center-left) and wary of his reputation as a reckless cowboy, a unilateralist with scant regard for his allies. And when he caps his tour Saturday with Putin, he'll face his biggest challenge. The Russian is opposed to Bush's plans for a missile-defense system, and Bush needs to change Putin's mind. If Putin goes along, the rest of Europe--steadfastly opposed for now--will probably go along...
...convinced European objections will evaporate if the U.S. can get Russia to do so. "The bottom line for [Europe] is, Don't put us in the middle of a fight between you and the Russians," says a senior State Department official. And so all eyes are on the Putin meeting...
Back when he was still campaigning for the G.O.P. nomination, Bush remarked to TIME that "anyone who tells you they have Putin figured out is blowing smoke." A year later, Putin remains a mystery. Last week Bush told a visiting business executive that he wondered whether Putin's KGB past would make him even harder to read. "I want to look him in the eye," Bush said, "and see if I can see his soul...
Bush has discussed Putin with world leaders ranging from Britain's Tony Blair to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. And he's been briefed by CIA experts on the way the former KGB officer charms foreign leaders in meetings such as this. Putin will be ready to banter on everything from the 1972 Antiballistic Missile Treaty to Bush's love of baseball. He may even make some private small talk in English in an attempt to ease the tension of their first meeting. In that sense, at least, the Russian is a bit like Bush...