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Bush Wants Putin With Him in 'Foxhole'
November 13, 2001
By SANDRA SOBIERAJ
WASHINGTON (AP) - When it comes to Russia's leader, President Bush likes what he sees. ``You're the kind of guy I like to have in a foxhole with me,'' he told Vladimir Putin on Tuesday.
Putin, a first-time visitor to the White House and Washington, signed the guest book in the Roosevelt Room before crossing the hall to the Oval Office.
Shaking hands with everyone in the room, Putin seemed to the U.S. delegation to be eager to look around. Bush obliged by showing off each piece of artwork he had selected for the Oval Office, all of them Texas landscapes.
``Where are the Texas people,'' Putin asked teasingly.
``I'm a Texas person,'' Bush replied, and then the two sat down for an hour-long meeting - just the two of them, Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of State Colin Powell, and their two Russian counterparts.
While their delegations were waiting in the Cabinet Room to begin an expanded meeting, Bush veered from the official schedule and steered Putin out the Oval Office's side door. With interpreters in tow, Bush gave Putin a tour of the South grounds, including the tree swing where Amy Carter and the Kennedy children played, and the president's private swimming pool.
They ducked back into the West Wing through the private terrace off the president's hideaway dining room.
In the Cabinet Room meeting, which also lasted an hour, Putin, according to a senior U.S. official, spoke at some length about how important it is to complete the mission in Afghanistan.
Bush, pointing his finger and thumping his hand on the table for emphasis, replied: ``Until the al-Qaida is brought to justice, we're not leaving. As great nations, we're the most vulnerable targets.''
Then, Bush said to Putin, ``You're the kind of guy I like to have in a foxhole with me.''
It wasn't the first time Bush has complimented Putin.
After their first meeting, in Slovenia last June, Bush said of Putin: ``I looked the man in the eye. I found him to be very straightforward and trustworthy. We had a very good dialogue. I was able to get a sense of his soul; a man deeply committed to his country. ... I wouldn't have invited him to my ranch if I didn't trust him.'' Bush and Putin will meet on Wednesday and Thursday at the president's ranch in Crawford, Texas.
Before lunch in the Blue Room, Bush again improvised on the schedule and spirited Putin up to the third floor family residence, showing him the Yellow Oval Room, the Lincoln Bedroom and the Truman Balcony, with its view of the Washington Monument.
The two presidents also surprised their wives by popping into first lady Laura Bush's lunch with Putin's wife, Lyudmila, and a dozen other women, including Alma Powell.
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