Washington – President Bush on Wednesday launched a high-stakes effort to repair the dramatically deteriorating U.S. relationship with Russia by inviting President Vladimir Putin to visit the family compound in Kennebunkport, Maine.
The White House has grown increasingly alarmed lately with the harsh tone coming out of Moscow. Although the president’s aides do not expect to resolve the stickiest issues during the visit to the Bush family retreat on the Maine coast July 1-2, they hope the relaxed setting will restore a constructive footing to U.S.-Russian relations.
During more than six years as president, Bush has never asked any foreign leader to join him at his parents’ seaside home until now, and aides hope Putin will be impressed with the show of intimacy.
But Russia specialists expressed doubt that Bush can make much headway with Putin, particularly now that both are heading into the twilight of their tenures.
Bush wants Russia to do more to pressure Iran to give up its nuclear program, while Moscow resents U.S. plans to deploy missile-defense systems in Eastern Europe. The two sides disagree over whether Kosovo should be allowed independence.
Putin recently compared U.S. policy to that of the Third Reich and suspended implementation of a major arms-control treaty to protest U.S. missile defense.
