Russia-US Summit A Chance To Jumpstart Ties

MOSCOW (AP) — Presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev will likely sign a stack of agreements during their Moscow summit, but their chief goal may be for the United States and Russia to stop acting like adversaries — even if they can't be friends.

Over the past year, already tense ties have been strained to the breaking point over Russia's war with Georgia and U.S. plans to build a missile defense shield in Moscow's backyard.

With the first full-fledged U.S-Russia summit since 2002, the two presidents have a chance to put an end to years of suspicion and rancor.

"This will be a very important meeting which will basically answer the question of whether the U.S. and Russia can work together," said Dmitry Trenin, director of the Moscow Carnegie Center, a think tank.

There's a packed agenda: Extension and expansion of the START 1 nuclear arms control treaty, Iran, North Korea, a proposed U.S. defensive missile system for Europe and Russia's disputed claims of having a privileged interest in the affairs of its former Soviet satellites.

Experts expect the two sides to agree on over flights of U.S. weaponry to Afghanistan, to pledge to agree to cuts in nuclear arsenals, and to set up a new presidential-level commission to expand cultural and trade programs.

The two-day summit isn't likely to have the impact of the 1945 Yalta conference, which preceded the division of Europe and led to the creation of the United Nations.

Neither is it expected to produce the fireworks of, say, the 1959 "Kitchen debate," when Vice President Richard Nixon came to Moscow and clashed over the relative advantages of communism and capitalism with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev.

But analysts still see the meeting as crucial to smooth relations between the two countries that control nine out of ten of the world's nuclear warheads.

First summits count. When U.S. President George W. Bush first met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Slovenia in June 2001, Bush looked Putin in the eye and liked what he saw.

"I found him to be very straightforward and trustworthy and we had a very good dialogue," Bush said at the time. "I was able to get a sense of his soul."

But after a brief post-Sept. 11 honeymoon, the U.S.-Russia relationship suffered a long and bitter break-up.

Trenin and other experts say the planned summit has already achieved one of the White House's chief objectives: to end the hostile rhetoric between Washington and Moscow.

The Kremlin's main objective, experts say, was to get the U.S. to acknowledge that post-Soviet Russia still has a major role to play in global affairs. The Bush administration sometimes seemed to regard Russia as at best a regional power.

"Russia has been made a priority" for the United States again, said Angela Stent of Georgetown University, and a former member of the National Intelligence Council.

While courting Russia, analysts said, the White House has put NATO membership for Ukraine and Georgia on the back burner and throttled back on construction of an anti-missile system in Central Europe. Both projects angered the Kremlin.

Russia, meanwhile, has dropped talk of building military bases in the Caribbean and targeting its missiles on Europe. Moscow also swiftly agreed to tough new U.N. sanctions against North Korea following its May 25 nuclear test, after years of resisting increased pressure on Pyongyang.

Some leaders of Russia's liberal democratic opposition believe the Obama administration may be trying too hard to please the Kremlin.

"Stop making out that by dealing with Putin and Medvedev you are dealing with democratically-elected leaders," said Garry Kasparov, the former chess champion and opposition leader. "They are leaders of an authoritarian country in which democracy has been destroyed."

But Obama is expected to meet with some Kremlin foes Tuesday. He is also expected to raise the issue of slain journalists with Medvedev, including the 2004 slaying of U.S. journalist Paul Klebnikov.

While many differences between Russia and the U.S. have been set aside, they have not disappeared.

Both sides remain divided on a host of issues. The White House has slowed but not abandoned the missile defense system, suggesting it could still be built if it proves affordable and effective. Neither has Russia signaled a willingness to bring pressure on Iran to abandon its nuclear program, as the U.S. has long sought.

While Washington is no longer pushing NATO expansion into Ukraine and Georgia, it hasn't repudiated the policy. Neither has Medvedev abandon his claim that the former Soviet states are part of Russia's "zone of privileged interest," where Moscow intends to maintain its dominant influence.

A breakthrough on any of these issues would be a major achievement.

Despite the warming of relations, though, Moscow and Washington won't exactly be headed into a summer of love.

Obama will face suspicion in the labyrinthine halls of the Kremlin, where some top government officials regard the U.S. as a determined foe and NATO as a threat to Russia's existence.

"Russia has a deep distrust of the U.S. and of the West in general," said Masha Lipman, an analyst with the Moscow Carnegie Center think tank.

Every U.S. president has tried to reach out to the Russian people, in hopes of influencing their leaders. And Obama is no exception.

After his official meetings Tuesday, Obama plans to talk with former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, give a speech at the Higher School of Economics, and meet with business leaders, human rights activists as well as the political opposition.

"As we reset relations with the Russian government, we also want to reset relations with Russian society," said Michael McFaul, Obama chief adviser on Russia and the former Soviet Union. Obama, he said, hopes to "establish a direct relationship with the Russian people."