British Prime Minister Gordon Brown (left) had some surprises at his meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
Photo: AP
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Medvedev Put PM Brown in His Place
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev took part in his first ever meeting with the leaders of the G8 countries yesterday, but it was in the bilateral meetings that, in the opinion of Kommersant special correspondent Andrey Kolesnikov, he really shined. The most dramatic of those meetings was with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
It rained all day yesterday on the island of Hokkaido. The Japanese forecasters were mistaken when they predicted light rain in the morning before 9:00 followed by sun – as sunny as the summit itself. Instead it rained.
Quite a bit more of what was promised didn’t materialize. The antiglobalists protested the summit by ignoring it. The roadblocks on the streets were needless as well. Nothing had moved along them within a ten-kilometer radius of the Windsor Hotel for days. Only cars from the delegations could be seen, and a rare busload of journalists. The Russian president’s cortege came in from the airport yesterday. It passed two signs together blinking in the English language: “Road closed” and “Welcome to Hokkaido!”
The protocol of this summit differs from earlier ones. It began yesterday morning with a session of the Eight with African countries. Previously, the African countries had been met after dinner. The meeting between the U.S. and Russian presidents took place even earlier than that. George W. Bush was a little late, but he had an excuse. His birthday was the day before. He doesn’t look anything like a lame duck, but he does repeat too often that he will sprint the final distance. One might think that he didn’t care how he looked at the finish line. Leaving an office you have held for eight years cannot be painless, especially when it is that office, one incomparable to anything else in the world.
“I reminded him that, yes, I'm leaving, but not until six months, and I'm sprinting to the finish,” Bush said when journalists had assembled in the room where he and Medvedev had spent at least half an hour talking. “So we can get a lot done together, and you know there are a lot of important issues like Iran. There's an area where Russia and the United States have worked closely in the past and will continue to work closely to convince the regime to give up its desire to enrich uranium.” That is why Russia is in demand.
Missile defense in Europe was not mentioned. Sources report that Bush said that question had been decided and there was no sense in even discussing it.
The Bush repeated almost word-for-word what he said about Medvedev three months ago in Sochi. “I'm not going to sit here and psychoanalyze the man, but I will tell you that he's very comfortable, he's confident, and that I believe that when he tells me something, he means it,” he said. It would be nice if you could say the same thing about Bush.
At the session with the African countries, it was decided that aid to those countries would be more closely supervised than before. Each country should undergo inspection for preparedness to receive the aid. If you didn’t know that this was Medvedev’s first meeting with the members of the G8, you might think that this was something he brought with him from his implementation of the Russian national projects.
Another eternal G8 national project is the reduction of harmful emission into Earth’s atmosphere. Alexander Bedritsky, a high-placed member of the Russian Committee on Hydrometeorology, stated yesterday that a declaration is expected to be signed on reducing harmful emissions into the atmosphere by 50-90 percent by 2050.
After the G8 session, Medvedev, like the other leaders, held several bilateral meetings. They were also held in the mountaintop Windsor Hotel, whose territory is so much larger than that of any hotel used for a G8 summit before that the Japanese’ territorial claims may seem inappropriate and even fantastic.
The fact remains that Japan has territorial claims against Russia. Even when Medvedev and Bush met, there was a map of Hokkaido in the background, thoughtfully supplied by the Japanese and clearly illustrating its ambitions. The same map was hung in all the press centers and posted on the official website of the G8. On them, the Kurile Islands are the same color as Japan. There was some likelihood that Japan would turn the map of its ambitions into the map of reality on the very eve of the summit, but that did not happen. They just made a lot of maps.
Aside from the meeting with the American president, which took place on his territory, Medvedev had three more bilateral meetings “at home.”
The room rented by the Russians, although it was next door to the Americans’ room, was half or a third the size of it. That was made up for by the wide swing of the door as leaders came and went.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel greeted the Russian delegation in Russian, and Medvedev also greeted the German delegation in Russian. He said that the meetings with the German chancellor were becoming monthly events and “economic contacts between Germany and Russia are extremely productive.”
Merkel did not concur. “In the area of electricity, there is a disagreement between us. Russia has oil and gas, and Germany has buyers for them. We have to discuss the problems arising among us.”
“Let’s do that,” Medvedev replied.
“It was very good with you,” Merkel said.
That phrase was striking. What could she have had in mind? That the meeting was over, or something else?
I looked at Merkel. She was looking at German journalists. Then, when she said the same thing in Russian, turning to us, I understood whom she was referring to. It was good with the journalists.
There was nothing more to say about journalists after that. We left with our heads held proudly high.
Merkel talked to Medvedev a little longer, however. About 20 minutes later, we were called to the meeting between Medvedev and the French president. The Russian president confessed to him that there was one thing he found unforgettable. While he was talking, French President Nicolas Sarkozy was shaking hands with French journalists and smiling a little too warmly at the female journalists. When it was his turn to speak, he stopped smiling at the ladies, and did not start smiling at Medvedev.
“Russia sells Europe 80 percent of its energy.” That was almost the first thing he said, and clearly all that interested him at the meeting, like Merkel. “And we need it. I hope we can discuss this problem,” he continued.
Obviously, the situation is a problem for both Merkel and Sarkozy.
“Russia, for the sake of stability in the world, should find its place on the world arena,” the French president said unexpectedly.
Apparently he imagined Russia thrashing about in that arena as it searched for its place. Maybe that’s not so far from reality. But the condescending look on his face was mildly annoying to me any way.
Here it looked as though the French president was getting ready to say that it had been very good with the journalists, as Merkel had, when Medvedev suddenly said, “Literally just a few hours ago, we were working on one of those problems.”
It was not clear what the Russian president was referring to. But something else was clear. Medvedev had decided stand up to the Western leaders and have the last word. However, even though Sarkozay remained silent, Medvedev did not get the last work.
“Mr. President, will you sing an agreement on Iran before the end of the year?” unexpectedly asked a journalist from Le Monde. Since the question was in Russian, she must have been addressing Medvedev.
She did not hear a reply of the type Vladimir Putin once gave to another journalist from that newspaper, advising him to be circumcised.
“We’ll talk later,” Medvedev replied ambiguously.
The conversation with Medvedev was not long either. It lasted about half an hour. The next to be received in that room was the most problematic for the Russian leader: British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who strode in confidently and invited Medvedev to sit down with a gesture. But the Russia delegation had rented that room. Medvedev replied with the same gesture.
It was the spot where Medvedev himself had just been sitting, but that was already beside the point. After showing Brown his place, the Russian president sat down in the opposite chair before the British prime minister had a chance to puzzle the situation out. Then the British prime minister sat down.
For the three or four minutes the two leaders sat together in the presence of the press, Brown did not smile once and only a couple time looked in the direction of Medvedev (although they say that his usual manner is quite different). Even while speaking, he did not look at the Russian president.
Medvedev started with the good news. British investment in Russia is up 50 percent in the last four months “though it was very serious even before that.”
“And that is in spite of a certain number of problems that have accumulated in our relations,” the Russian president continued. “That shows their enormous potential.”
Unless it was just inertia, of course.
“First, I would like to congratulate you, President Medvedev, on your first time at the summit of the Eight,” said Brown.
“Seven,” his translator corrected.
“Eight,” said Medvedev.
“As am I. I will, of course, raise all the outstanding issues in our relationship and we look forward to constructive and workmanlike discussions,” said Brown, drawing attention once again to the present lack of such discussions.
Taking the last word once again, Medvedev replied, “I agree with you. Let’s do that!”
Brown looked somewhat surprised. He apparently is unused to having his words commented on.
Medvedev spent more time with Brown than with Merkel and Sarkozy. A participant in the talks later said that they talked about the conflict over TNK-BP and the Alexander Litvinenko case. Brown, not Medvedev, was the one to bring both issues up. The Russian president told him how many visas had been issued to the foreign workers at TNK-BP and said something about a conflict of economic subjects that Brown did not seem to follow too clearly.
Medvedev added that a working visa (which is what TNK-BP employee received) showed be granted under all strictness of the law – one could have said martial law.
In unofficial conversations, members of the Russian delegation are saying that they didn’t start it. Great Britain started making visa procedures stricter first. It is well known, for example, that Russian officials receive only one-time visas from the British embassy.
And many of them have children there!
A high-placed sources in the Russian delegation said that the leaders spoke at length about that issue and limited themselves to only a few phrases on Litvinenko. They declined to say just which phrases were used, however.
When the meeting ended, there were two cups left behind on the table between the leaders’ chairs. The one next to Medvedev’s chair was empty, aside from a few tea leaves on the bottom. Brown’s was still full.
Maybe they spoke only a few words about Litvinenko, but Brown wasn’t drinking tea brought by a Russian waiter.
Andrey Kolesnikov
All the Article in Russian as of July 08, 2008
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