Associated Press Article: Referenced from -
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5i...QCO0WASHINGTON
(AP) — By his own admission, President Bush has seen his relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin grow chilly.
Bush, who looked Putin in the eye in 2001 and judged the Russian leader "straightforward and trustworthy," offered a new assessment Wednesday. He called Putin "wily" and secretive about his political plans.
The United States had been hopeful about democratic reform in Russia after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, but Bush now says Russia's progress toward democracy has been derailed.
"In terms of whether or not it's possible to reprogram the kind of basic Russian DNA, which is a centralized authority, that's hard to do," Bush said at a White House news conference Wednesday.
Bush believed he had a strong ally in Putin after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. But relations between the former Cold War foes are increasingly cool amid U.S. criticism of the Kremlin for rolling back on democracy and Moscow's criticism of U.S. plans to deploy missile defense sites in Europe close to its western borders.
He insists that he and Putin can agree to disagree, but their relations keep hitting snags.
This week, Putin irritated Washington by traveling to Tehran to meet with Bush nemesis, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. It was the first visit by a Kremlin leader to Iran since Josef Stalin attended a 1943 summit with Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt.
U.S. officials have long accused Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons behind the facade of a civil atomic energy program, charges Tehran denies. Putin bluntly disagrees, saying last week that he saw no "objective data" to prove Western claims that Iran is seeking nuclear weapons.
Bush needs Russia's support to push for the third set of sanctions against Iran. Russia and China, another key ally of Iran, grudgingly approved two previous sets, but the Kremlin has bristled at harsher measures. The Iranians "are not afraid (of new sanctions), believe me," Putin said in Tehran.
Bush said Putin understands it's in the world's interest to make sure that Iran does not have the capacity to make a nuclear weapon. "If he wasn't concerned about it, then why did we have such good progress at the United Nations in round one and round two?" Bush asked.
The president said he'd seen front-page news photographs that depicted Putin and Ahmadinejad as friends, but was awaiting a personal readout from Putin on his meeting.
"The thing I'm interested in is whether or not he continues to harbor the same concerns that I do. And I say 'continues' because when we were in Australia, he reconfirmed to me ... he recognized it's not in the world's interest for Iran to have the capacity to make a nuclear weapon," Bush said. "And they have been very supportive in the United Nations, and we're working with them on a potential third resolution."
The Bush administration also is wary of the political situation in Russia.
Putin, who is immensely popular, has said he would step down at the end of his second term, and is expected to give his blessing to a favored successor. But last month, Putin abruptly announced he would lead the main pro-Kremlin party's ticket in December parliamentary elections and could later take the prime minister's job. That scenario could allow him to remain at the helm and eclipse a weaker president.
Sen. John McCain, a candidate for the GOP presidential nomination, said Putin's ideas about democracy should bar him from the next meeting of the G-8 coalition of western nations. McCain said the G-8 was founded on fundamental economic and democratic principles and that Russia no longer meets the qualifications for G-8 membership.
Playing off Bush's claim to have looked into Putin's soul, McCain said this week: "I looked into Mr. Putin's eyes and I saw three things: a K and a G and a B." It was a reference to Putin's career in his country's intelligence agency.
"Pretty good line," Bush quipped.
Later Bush said he tried in Australia to get the Russian leader to tell him who was going to succeed him.
"He was wily," Bush said. "He wouldn't tip his hand."
I think No matter WHAT Putin has to say, this War on IRAN WILL happen.....
