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Bush, Putin Seal Friendship Before Students
By Steve Holland
November 15, 2001
CRAWFORD, Texas (Reuters) - President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin failed to bridge the gaps over a key arms control treaty on Thursday but did not let that stop them from a lovefest of backslapping and wisecracking as they ended a rain-soaked summit.
In an extraordinary display of friendship for two men who only met last June, Bush and Putin were in playful moods during a student news conference at Crawford High School despite the steady rain and booming thunder outside.
``When I was in high school, Russia was an enemy,'' Bush said. ``Now the high school students can know Russia as a friend.''
Putin showed that behind his stony face is a dry wit. ``No math questions, please,'' he told the students. And he had them cheering at the end when he told them, at the count of three, to raise their hands if they wanted Bush to visit Russia.
``One...two...,'' he said. ``Yes!'' they yelled.
Facing a barrage of remarkably mature questions from the students, Bush and Putin were quizzed about everything from their differences over Bush's desire to deploy a missile defense system, to their decision to reduce their countries' nuclear stockpiles, to women's rights in Afghanistan, to what Putin likes most about Texas.
They revealed that they were not able during their three days of discussions in Washington and Crawford to resolve differences over the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty, which Bush calls a Cold War relic blocking missile defenses but which Putin says is essential to strategic security.
``DIFFERENCES WILL NOT DIVIDE US,'' SAYS BUSH
``Given the nature of the relationship between the United States and Russia, one can rest assured that whatever final solution is found, it will not threaten or put to threat the interests of both our countries or the world,'' Putin said.
Said Bush: ``We have a difference of opinion, but the great thing about our relationship is our relationship is strong enough to endure this difference of opinion...Our differences will not divide us as nations.''
Afterward, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said the treaty dispute was a ``smaller element'' of the overall relationship than it was several months ago.
Asked if the United States would give Russia a six-month notice that it intends to withdraw from the treaty, which the accord requires, she said: ``I think that everybody, including the Russians, understand that we're soon going to run up against certain constraints of the treaty.''
The two leaders also appeared to offer differing interpretations of the fate of nuclear warheads to be removed from missiles under arms reductions they each announced on Tuesday. Bush said ``we are talking about reducing and destroying the number of warheads.''
But Putin said there needed to be negotiations to guarantee their destruction because ``you can just dismantle the warheads and rest them by their weapons'' and they can still be used.
Rice said the United States was ``more than willing to talk with the Russians'' about codifying on paper some verification procedures for the warheads. Bush agreed to reduce the U.S. nuclear arsenal from about 7,000 warheads to a range between 1,700 to 2,250 while Putin agreed to go down from 6,000 warheads to about 1,500.
Bush and Putin had spent the night with their wives at Bush's Prairie Chapel ranch and despite the rain, the rural environment and friendly company appeared to have worked its wonders.
They slapped each other on the back and joked, at one point teasing each other about whether it is better to visit Texas in the heat of August or Siberia in winter.
``He invited me to join a plus-40 (years of age) club who jog when it is 110 (degrees F) and more. Well, I'll think about it,'' Putin deadpanned.
And he said when he complimented Bush on the steak and catfish meal they had at the ranch, Bush told him that ``indeed, this cannot be done except for in Texas.''
Bush said the United States and Russia ``were enemies of a long period of time'' but now are friends and that he wanted the relationship to outlive their presidencies.
``A lot of people never really dreamed that an American president and a Russian president could have established the friendship that we have,'' Bush said.
PUTIN REVEALS SOFTER SIDE
Putin revealed a softer side than the stony image the former KGB spy chief usually conveys. He talked about God, saying it was ``quite possible that God was looking quite positively'' on the eight Western aid workers who survived being held by the Taliban and found their freedom in Afghanistan on Wednesday.
Bush said he had accepted an invitation to visit Russia and visit Putin's home town of St. Petersburg in addition to Moscow.
Putin, asked what he liked most about Texas, drew laughter and applause by calling it ``the most important state in the United States,'' and one familiar to Russians because of its oil production and home for NASA.
``We in Russia somehow tend to know about Texas rather better than about the rest of the United States somehow -- except maybe for Alaska, which we sold to you,'' he quipped.
Putin, whose wife Lyudmila sat with Bush's wife Laura nearby, also spoke of the Taliban's repressive treatment of women in Afghanistan. ``Overall, women in Afghanistan are basically not treated as people,'' he said.
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