A Friend in Dinner is a Friend Indeed
// Russian and US presidents had dinner in the airport
Russian President Vladimir Putin met with his US counterpart George Bush yesterday. During their dinner in Vnukovo-2 airport, Putin promised to Bush to stand by him no matter what. Kommersant’s special correspondent Andrey Kolesnikov brings the details of the meeting.
I entered the zone of the airport which is used for the Kremlin’s departures abroad, and I shuddered. I suddenly had the impression of being in one of Arkady Novikov’s restaurants. That empty hall, where sepulchral cold is felt even when the hall is heated; where passports are usually stamped and departing passengers are informally searched, that very hall was now full of little tables covered with snow-white table-cloths. Waiters maneuvered between those tables; food steamed in large steel trays by the windows; this time, the steam of fatherland was sweet and pleasant.
A big wooden cart, covered with a pair of apple-patterned women’s kerchiefs, stood by the check-in counter. The cart was loaded with cucumbers, tomatoes, pumpkins, strawberries, tangerines, oranges, grapes of three kinds. Onions and garlic were hanging above, in something like stockings. A whisk of wheat spikes was nearby, and 2 cheerful US journalists working in Moscow joked that the whisk is the unpleasant reminder of the Jackson-Vanik amendment which has not been abridged still. [whisk is ‘venik’ in Russian.]
Naturally, it was Arkady Novikov who organized all that for US delegation members, for US journalists who accompanied Bush, and for Russian journalists who came to Vnukovo from Moscow.
Tables for presidents were set in the other wing of the airport. Salad with Kamchatka crabs, Olivier salad, wholly-grilled sterlet, salmon, starred sturgeon, herring, jellied meat, tongue meat dish, salted mushrooms, egg-plant caviar, vegetables, pancakes with black and red caviar, back of young veal, berry pies, cakes, and home-made charlotte were served for the dinner. However, cabbage leaves stuffed with pike-perch in vegetable sauce were canceled from the menu for some reason. Apparently, their suspicious appearance might have spoiled the appetite of US president’s security service.
All the dishes mentioned above go very well with vodka. They make up the menu of Tsarskaya Okhota (Tsar’s Hunting) Novikov-owned restaurant by Rublevo-Uspenskoe highway. Meanwhile, Bush drinks nothing but Coca Cola Light, and that was the sad paradox.
When US president’s Boeing drove right to the place where Putin’s airplane usually stops, Lyudmila and Vladimir Putin exited the airport. Russian president carried flowers, of which he seemed to be unaware, because he held the flowers down and waved them as he walked.
George Bush came out of his airplane and did an abrupt movement. He put his right hand in front of his chest, which looked like a “Don’t touch!” warning rather than a greeting.
Presidents and first ladies embraced each other, flowers were given to the guests, and the dinner began. Naturally, there was not a single journalist in the presidential wing of the airport.
The dinner was over about the time when the airplane was refueled, that is 1 hour 15 minutes after its beginning. According to the conditions of US side, neither Bush, nor Putin said anything to journalists. Putin’s press service said only that the presidents talked about Iran nuclear issue, nuclear non-proliferation in general, Middle East, and Hanoi’s preparation to sign the bilateral protocol on Russia’s accession to the WTO.
US President quickly returned to his airplane and departed to Hanoi. However, Bush made considerable concessions to Putin. At first, he did not plan to exit his airplane at all during the refueling in Moscow. He only asked to send onboard his favorite pancakes with caviar – apparently, as a sign that he respects everyone here, likes Russian food, but there is no point exiting the airplane since Russian pancakes can be eaten on US territory as well.
At first, Putin agreed, but later, he invited Bush out of the airplane. US side kept refusing for some time, saying there will be a normal bilateral Putin-Bush meeting in Hanoi in a few days anyway.
Yet, Putin obviously needed that meeting before Hanoi. Russian president was sympathetic about Republican failure in midterm elections to US Congress. It is rumored he took that misfortune as his own, but it seems to me, however, Putin can hardly imagine anything like that in his own country.
Yet, Putin certainly understands the results of the midterms might bring trouble to him as well. Every now and then, Democrats introduced resolutions to the Congress which were blocked by Republicans. Democrats wanted to tie up Russia’s G8 membership with human rights issues in Russia, for instance. Other resolutions concerned Mikhail Khodorkovsky case, or denouncing Russian law on NGOs.
Democrats will probably try to triumphally accomplish what they’ve begun, and US president only can stop them, if he vetoes their draft resolutions. Thus, Putin wanted to persuade Bush that the latter should definitely act so, and that’s what Putin did during the dinner.
Russian president assured that his attitude to Bush will not change, no matter what happens to US president. Putin must have meant the impeachment. Putin assured Bush that the latter will remain his friend, just like former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder (it is unknown whether Bush was happy or upset to hear the comparison).
So, US president can be absolutely calm: Putin will not abandon him in hard times, and, should anything happen, might help him with finding a job.
Andrey Kolesnikov, Vnukovo-2 airport
All the Article in Russian as of Nov. 16, 2006
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