 Russia, West fail to narrow differences
(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-07-08 07:30
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev yesterday met with four Western leaders during a summit of industrialized nations, his biggest international forum since he took over from his predecessor Vladimir Putin. Medvedev held separate talks with US President George W. Bush, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown in a fog-shrouded mountaintop hotel where leaders of the Group of Eight (G8) economic powers gathered. After the meeting with Bush, a top Medvedev aide emphasized the positive in Russian-US relations but said the United States has failed to ease Russia's concerns about its plans for a European-based missile shield, a major bone of contention. "There is no real progress," Sergei Prikhodko said. He said Medvedev warned Bush that deploying interceptors for the system in the ex-Soviet republic of Lithuania if talks with Poland fail "would be absolutely unacceptable for the Russian Federation." Prikhodko said the talks were "exclusively well-intentioned, constructive and open, but at times critical." He said Medvedev believes "the overall balance of Russian-American relations is without a doubt positive." The summit and a slew of one-on-one meetings were testing Medvedev's diplomatic dexterity two months after his inauguration as president. His solo performance could help the 42-year-old former lawyer emerge from the shadow of Putin, who ensured his protege's election in March by tapping him as his favored successor. "I found him to be a smart guy who understood the issues very well," Bush said of Medvedev. "But I'm not surprised. After all, he has been very close to foreign policy issues up until his ascendancy to the presidency." While Medvedev's milder manner has apparently appealed to Western leaders accustomed to Putin's in-your-face style, he has stressed that he will protect Russia's interests no less fiercely. He has echoed Putin's criticism of the West, in particular the United States, and has no sign of softening opposition to bugbears of Putin, such as the US missile defense plans and NATO's promise to eventually invite Georgia and Ukraine in. Medvedev's first meeting with Brown came with Russian-British relations at a low point, badly strained by issues including the 2006 radiation poisoning death of Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko in London. Russia has refused to extradite the sole suspect. Brown also raised the decision of Russian officials that forced the British Council, a government-backed cultural organization, to shut its doors in the cities of St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg, the British leader's spokesman Michael Ellam said. Russia's relations with Germany and France are less acrimonious. Agencies (China Daily 07/08/2008 page12) |
