Word: russian
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...incoming rogue ICBMs it is supposed to obliterate don't yet exist. But Bush's insistence on deploying a Son of Star Wars a.s.a.p. formed the edgy subtext of his meetings with European leaders in Genoa and the top talking point for his second sitdown with Russian President Vladimir Putin...
...have to believe that premise for the rest to follow. It's very Reaganesque. Where the former President saw a Russian lurking behind every bedpost, Bush sees rogue nations holding America hostage. Where Reagan liked simple story lines, Bush likes executive summaries. A missile shield is a succinct solution to a complex problem. Like Reagan, Bush prides himself on cowboy toughness--on being a man who knows what he believes and charges fearlessly ahead...
Candidate Bush chastised Bill Clinton for turning Russian-American relations into a game of personal chemistry. That was forgotten when Bush first met Putin last month and gushed that he had looked into the former KGB man's eyes "to get a sense of his soul." Bush believes his charm and persuasiveness will move his pal Putin to let the U.S. do what it wants. As an adviser puts it, the Administration is going to "work it and work it and work it and work it" until Putin gives...
...Russian leader has been saying no, no, no. He probably cares less about the sanctity of the ABM treaty than the harm its demise might do to Russia's standing in the world and his image at home. Analysts in most capitals, including Moscow, think he's bargaining for everything he can get before he says O.K. He needs the veneer of equal dialogue, and the sweeteners could be costly--no NATO expansion; keeping quiet as Russia continues economic ties to Iraq and Iran...
...will be damaging for the U.S. to be perceived as having violated an international treaty, and establishing a precedent. But at the end of the day, despite the friction over NMD, the relationship between Washington and Moscow is a lot warmer than it has been for some time. A Russian foreign ministry official today told me, "We like these Republicans; we know exactly where we stand with them." And that's a Soviet tradition...