US, Russia looking to mend contentious relations

By Mike McCarthy Jul 10, 2007, 11:37 GMT

Washington - The United States and Russia are trying to smooth their thorny relations of recent years and improve cooperation on the world stage, but wide policy gaps remain.

Many Russians believed that the honeymoon in Russian-US relations, which followed the collapse of the Soviet Union and end of the Cold War, came at the cost of the country's prestige and influence in global affairs. But that era is over.

Buoyed by an economic boom fuelled by high prices for oil and natural gas, Russia has re-emerged as an international power, leaving Washington and Moscow struggling to co-exist over differences on a large number of issues that have dragged relations to their lowest point since the end of the Cold War.

'There is, I would say, a reservoir of bitterness that's been built up over the last immediate period, the last three months, but also over the last several years,' Rose Gottemoeller, an expert on US-Russian relations at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told an audience in Washington.

The harshest rhetoric has been over US plans to base missile defences in Poland and the Czech Republic, two states once dominated by the Kremlin but now members of NATO with strong ties to the US.

The White House and Kremlin have also clashed over Iran's nuclear activities, a UN plan to grant Kosovo independence from Serbia, and NATO expansion, while also jockeying for influence in Europe.

But there is guarded optimism that the two sides are trying to find common ground. The first step was taken when US President George W Bush hosted Russian President Vladimir Putin on July 1-2 at the Bush family's oceanside retreat in Kennebunkport, Maine.

As expected, there were no major breakthroughs, but the two leaders expressed confidence that they were able to work together at the summit, which was aimed at changing the tone of the relationship more than making concrete progress toward resolving disputes.

Bush and Putin agreed to cooperate in the nuclear-energy sector, and the two sides announced plans to discuss more reductions in their nuclear arsenals, with the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty facing expiration in 2009.

But the US and Russia remain far apart on key issues, especially the missile defence plans, which Washington says are aimed at thwarting an Iranian threat. Moscow believes the system is really meant to target Russia's strategic nuclear arsenal.

Moscow also suspects that Washington is undermining Russian influence on its own borders by developing close ties with former Soviet states such as Georgia and Ukraine.

Putin has threatened to redirect gas exports from Europe to China, raising alarm in the US and European capitals that the Kremlin was trying to intimidate the continent.

The US has urged the European Union to lessen its energy dependence on the Russian government-controlled Gazprom, citing the security threat caused by a lack of competition.

'The US is worried about what's happening here with gas,' Matthew Bryza, deputy assistant secretary of state at the US State Department's Europe and Eurasia bureau, told an energy forum on June 13 in Riga, Latvia. 'We'd like to increase competition in the EU's gas market without confrontation.'

Bush and Putin made some headway on missile defence in Maine.

They agreed to bring NATO into the dialogue, and Putin elaborated on his surprise offer last month to allow the use of a base in Azerbaijan as a substitute for the US' planned European sites.

Bush said he is interested in the proposal but remains committed to the deployment in Eastern Europe.

Despite photos of the two men seeming to have a good time in Kennebunkport, two days after the meeting the rhetoric heated up again, with Russia's First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov suggesting that Russia could site missiles on the border of Poland and Lithuania if Bush rejects Putin's proposal.

The comments were 'not constructive,' US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack shot back.

But Bush's public declaration that he is willing to consider Putin's idea has led some analysts to conclude that there could be a thaw in relations, if more can be achieved following the Maine talks.

'The Bush administration has set the right tone by saying 'interesting idea, let's talk',' Gottemoeller said.

Gottemoeller noted, however, that the substantive problems in the relationship pose major obstacles to healing ties.

'It will be difficult to sustain,' she said. 'But it is a possibility that we can see more positive momentum being achieved and being sustained.'