Condoleezza Rice and Robert Gates talked about Iran's nuclear ambitions and the prospects of persuading Russia to join the United States and its European allies in imposing much tougher sanctions against Iran through the United Nations. Putin replied coolly that he had seen "no evidence" that Iran was trying to develop a nuclear weapon.

They talked about U.S. plans to build an advanced early-warning radar system and a base for missiles that could shoot down Iranian missiles in the future, and Putin made it clear he was against it. His counteroffer, of the use of an existing Russian radar base much closer to Iran in the former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan, has already been examined and dismissed by U.S. military experts as inadequate and unsuitable.

They talked about Russia's plan to withdraw from the 1989 Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty, one of the keystone agreements that ended the Cold War with its strict limits on the number of troops and weapons that could be stationed in the states along the old border between NATO and the Warsaw Pact.

They touched on the issue of Putin's political future and on human rights. Rice held a meeting with Russian human-rights activists, and she later commented she thought too much power was being centralized inside the Kremlin.

In short, with the exception of some brief exchanges on cooperation in anti-terrorist measures, it was very much like a summit in the grim old days of the Soviet Union. The air was thick with mutual suspicion and mistrust, with Russian generals muttering darkly offstage about U.S. policies "bringing nuclear war closer."

Clearly, despite President Bush's claim after their first meting in Ljubljana, Slovenia, in 2001 that he had "looked into Putin's soul" and found a fellow believer and a diplomatic partner, the Bush administration has not handled the Russian relationship at all well.

Perhaps it was impossible all along, given Putin's KGB background, his deep Russian patriotism and his determination to return Russia to its old great-power status. And Putin never made any secret of his firm opposition to a unipolar world dominated by the sole U.S. superpower. He also made it clear from the beginning that he wanted to restore order to Boris Yeltsin's anarchic Russia in the traditional way, by re-establishing a strong state system based in the Kremlin and pursuing the Kremlin's vision of the national interest.

This meant, as Putin quickly demonstrated, ruthlessly asserting state control over the new rich oligarchs who had profited hugely from the privatization of Russia's natural resources in the Yeltsin years. It also meant Russia's firm opposition to key Bush policies like walking out of the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and enlarging NATO to include the old Warsaw Pact states and former Soviet republics like Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

None of this was going to be easy for the Bush administration to swallow. And the surging growth of China and India sent demand for oil soaring, just as Bush's war on Iraq drove up the oil price and the botched post-war occupation provoked an insurgency that crippled Iraq's oil production. To Putin's benefit, the oil price kept rising ever higher and Russia became steadily richer, and able to afford to pay the pensions and wage increases that kept Putin popular, and also to afford to modernize the strategic missiles and weaponry and keep the generals happy.

The Russian defense budget has grown at double-digit rates for the last five years, albeit from a very low base. New investment has gone into the development of new strategic weapons, specifically the Topol-M, designed to defeat U.S. strategic defense systems, and the S-400 anti-missile system. Defense outlays for 2007 are at a post-Soviet high of $32.4 billion, rising 23 percent in the past year and four times expenditures of 2001.

This year's Russian budget spread the bonanza. The minimum wage was raised 15 percent along with salaries for state employees and military pay and pensions. Another $6.4 billion extra spending was devoted to health and to encouraging a higher birth-rate policies, and there was $3 billion extra for education (up 66 percent), for innovative schools and teacher bonuses. Internet connections were promised for all schools. Housing got an extra $17 billion, up 30 percent, with loans for new construction, a state agency to provide mortgages and subsidies for young families. There was an extra $1.7 billion for a new Agricultural Bank and subsidies for loan repayments to farmers, and still $100 billion left over to be put into a national investment fund.

But now, with all the foreign investment money and petrodollars flowing in, Russians are noticing the first signs of a worm in this apple. What ordinary Russians are talking about is inflation, which the state agencies now fear will top 10 percent this year. Some food prices are up 30 percent, and a new poll by the Public Opinion group found 68 percent of Russians saying there were more and more foods they could not afford to buy.

Sadly, that was not an issue that came up in the American talks with Putin. It should have done, not because this suggests a coming weakness in Russia's hitherto strong negotiating position, but because this is the direct result of the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis. The Russian central bank is pouring liquidity into the market daily to fend off a credit crunch that would really jeopardize the Russian economy and Putin's legacy.

And remember the crash of the ruble in 1998, which sent tremors around the global financial system. Another ruble crisis, when the world is already grappling with liquidity problems and a plunging dollar, is the last thing the global economy now needs.

Since the U.S. secretaries of state and defense got so little from their meetings with Putin, perhaps it is time to send Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, who understands that one key way in which the Cold War is over is that Russia is now an integral part of the global economic system. And in safeguarding that, Bush and Putin have almost everything in common.

related report
Russia will not be reined in: Putin
Russian President Vladimir Putin signalled here Monday that his country would not allow its economic and military prowess to be reined in, adding there was no reason to fear Russia's progress.

"Maybe there are people who do not like Russia's progress. To those people I want to say that there is no reason to worry about Russia getting back on its feet," Putin said after talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in the western city of Wiesbaden.

"The economic and military strength of Russia cannot be reined in. They should not worry about this, they should use this to their advantage by cooperating with Russia."

Putin's remarks come amid rising tensions between Russia and the United States that have been fuelled by a row over the Pentagon's plans to erect missile defences in eastern Europe.

A four-way meeting between the US and Russian defence and foreign ministers last week failed to resolve the dispute and exposed deep differences between the former Cold War foes on a range of issues.

At those talks, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice rejected a Russian call to freeze plans to place 10 US interceptor missiles in Poland and a targeting radar in the Czech Republic by 2010.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov responded with a warning that the country would "take measures to neutralise that threat" if Washington were to override its concerns.

Washington insists the missile shield is a response to the potential danger posed by nations like Iran, but Moscow says Iran does not have nuclear missiles.

It fears that the US shield would fence in Russia's military might and rob its nuclear arsenal of deterrent power.

Putin is now threatening to tear up the Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) treaty which sets limits on troops, tanks and other military hardware across the continent, and another key accord, the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF), which led to the destruction of US and Russian missiles that threatened Europe.

Merkel, who fears that Europe could be embroiled in the row, on Monday again called for the missile shield issue to be resolved within NATO.

"We discussed the dialogue between the United States and Russia and I stressed once again that the relationship between Russia and NATO is the right forum to resolve this issue," she said.

Community
Email This Article
Comment On This Article

Related Links
Learn about the Superpowers of the 21st Century at SpaceWar.com
Learn about nuclear weapons doctrine and defense at SpaceWar.com

Memory Foam Mattress Review

SPACE MEDIA NETWORK PROMOTIONS Solar Energy Solutions Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison ... Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News