|
|
 |
Putin-Bush Meeting Doesn’t Inspire Great Optimism
The White House expects no crucial changes to happen during the meeting of U.S. President George Bush and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin that begins July 1 at the Bush family’s estate in Kennebunkport, Maine.
“I would caution against expecting grand new announcements,” White House briefer Tony Snow said as quoted by The Washington Post. “This is, in fact, an opportunity for two leaders to talk honestly and candidly with one another,” the briefer pointed out.
At the same time, Snow signaled that Putin’s offer for shared use of an early warning radar that Russia rents in Azerbaijan has encouraged Bush. But the matter at stake is not that the U.S. president would hail the initiative. It is rather the fact that Putin recognized that Europe and Asia would be in danger should some rogue nation be able to use nuclear missiles.
As to President Putin, he advocates the Gabala radar in Azerbaijan as a substitute for ten inceptors and a radar that the United States plans to station in Poland and the Czech Republic.
“If you are expecting some grand initiative, a bold announcement – no,” Snow was explicitly discouraging.
www.kommersant.com
|
|
|
