Kennebunkport, Maine – Russian President Vladimir Putin offered an expanded counterproposal to U.S. missile defense plans on Monday, challenging President Bush to build a regional European missile shield that could include a sophisticated new radar facility on Russian soil.
Putin’s proposal went far beyond the cooperation he first suggested in Germany last month and surprised Bush as the men wrapped up two days of informal meetings at the president’s family compound.
Bush welcomed the plan, and his advisers said Putin’s suggestions convinced them that he is serious about working together, not just posturing, as they initially suspected.
But they remained at odds over the core issue – whether Bush would deploy anti-missile facilities in Poland and the Czech Republic over the objections of Putin, who sees them as a threat to Russian security.
And for all the optimism voiced by senior U.S. officials about the prospects of finding agreement, past attempts by Washington and Moscow to work together to guard against accidental or rogue missile launches have gone nowhere.
“The deck has been dealt, and we are here to play,” Putin said as he stood at Bush’s side. “And I would very much hope that we are playing one and the same game.”
The discussion of missile defense dominated a visit intended to repair the deepening fractures in the U.S.-Russian relationship. Putin has denounced U.S. anti-missile plans as the start of a new arms race, threatened to withdraw from a conventional-forces treaty and implicitly compared Bush’s international policies to those of Germany’s Third Reich.
Bush hoped to use the relaxed atmosphere in Maine to reestablish a bond frayed since he first met Putin in 2001. Fresh from a boat outing with Bush’s father, in which Putin caught the only fish, the presidents emerged to reaffirm their friendship.
As a gift, Bush’s father, former President George H.W. Bush, gave Putin a Segway, and he reportedly gave it a try. The former president and first lady own three Segways and regularly zip around their sprawling property. A sign at the entrance to the compound reads: “Caution. President on Segway. Slow Down.”
