Gulliver in Putiput land
Who "won" the summit? Most observers took the line that U.S. President George Bush did what he came for and that President Vladimir Putin achieved virtually nothing. They point out that the strategic offensive arms-reduction treaty signed in Moscow was the U.S.-proposed version rather than the compromise version the Kremlin sought that would have required the parties to not only remove warheads, but destroy them, too.
But Kremlin officials who had the chance to observe Bush close-up say that, in fact, he was thrown off-balance, made a series of mistakes and didn’t manage to stick to a common line throughout the visit.
The press had expected Bush to morally dominate the summit. For a start, Putin had just received a slap in the face when the U.S. Congress refused to repeal the Jackson-Vanik amendment and criticized Moscow for its stubborn stand on the U.S. chicken-import issue. What’s more, the beginning of the summit coincided with the publication of Strobe Talbott’s memoirs, in which he describes how easily former U.S. President Bill Clinton twisted his not-always-sober "friend" former President Boris Yeltsin and his Kremlin aides around his little finger. Finally, the obviously declarative nature of the treaty signed in Moscow didn’t score Putin any political points.
But most Kremlin officials agreed that their boss was the "winner" at the summit. One reason for this was, as the Russian proverb goes, that when you’re at home, even the walls help. In this case, the walls helped quite literally. The splendor of the Kremlin halls sent Bush into a trance and millions of TV viewers saw him craning his neck every which way to take it all in. Indeed, he was so engrossed that he forgot to get rid of his chewing gum in time and got caught on camera spitting it out during the negotiations.
Putin, meanwhile, made use of the moment to take a decisive line, making jokes, calling Bush the main lobbyist for Boeing aircraft and chicken, suggesting that America buy cheap Russian steel and pertinently reminding Bush of U.S. nuclear cooperation with North Korea.
Certainly, Bush had dominated the last summit in the United States, but surrounded by the opulence of the Kremlin, he looked at moments like a peasant who had wandered into a palace, especially when he stared all about him, repeating, "it’s beautiful," over and over. When Kremlin officials learned recently that Bush nicknamed Putin "Putie Put," they hadn’t liked what they saw as its similarity to Lilliput, but they noted that, this time, Bush called Putin only Mr. President.
Now, the word in the Kremlin corridors is that Bush’s surprise played a fateful role in the summit. Bush hadn’t been to Russia before, and, full of CNN images of the Russian mafia, corruption and impoverished old women, no doubt expected to see Moscow practically in ruins. Instead, he quickly realized that the country defeated in the Cold War is doing much better than depicted in the grim portrayal given by presidential adviser Condoleezza Rice in her books about the last days of the Gorbachev era. Putin was calm and cheerful, the windows of Moscow’s luxury boutiques gleamed in the spring sun and the people on the streets were far from pouncing on Bush’s chewing gum with hungry eyes.
This revelation seemed to leave Bush so taken aback that he made a slip-up. Answering a St. Petersburg student’s question about why all the nuclear missiles couldn’t be destroyed, Bush said, "Well, who knows what things will be like in 10 years’ time and what the next Russian president’s plans will be."
By letting this phrase slip, Bush – or so the thinking in the Kremlin goes – undid his own words about "burying the Cold War" and, at the same time, wiped out Russia’s hopes for a genuinely new dialogue without looking back at the past. Kremlin insiders now joke gloomily that it was enough to show Bush the majestic Kremlin halls to have him sink back into old fears of the Soviet threat. Maybe next time Putin should meet with Bush in a shabby old office with a view of industrial ruins or a Communist meeting.
Kremlin insiders say Putin was especially saddened to realize that Bush was ready to see Russia as a potential rival again 10 years down the line in a new Cold War. Putin had hoped that good political will and his personal contacts with Bush would help overcome the Russophobic inertia in the U.S. Congress. But Bush admitted that he is still afraid of Russia.
Putin’s reaction came when he said, "We don’t need any special close relations with Washington" or any back-patting familiarity on the lines of "brother George" to replace "friend Bill." In Putin’s words, all Russia wants is for obsolete discriminatory measures to be abolished and for it to be recognized as a market economy.
Considering all the efforts Putin made, it seems symbolic that, during a visit to the Hermitage, Bush should have asked to see the portrait of Prince Potemkin, known for the villages he had built to show Catherine the Great how well the peasants were living. But the villages were just facades. It comes as no surprise, then, that people in the Kremlin are now calling the Bush-Putin meeting a Potemkin summit – brilliantly organized and designed to impress, but with practically zero real result.
(Natalia Mironova is filling in for Ekaterina Larina, who is on maternity leave. E-mail Katya at katya at russiajournal.com.)