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Putin Publicly Rebukes Rice, Gates

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By MICHAEL ABRAMOWITZ, The Washington Post

Published: October 13, 2007

MOSCOW - Two of President Bush's most senior Cabinet members pitched an unusual new missile defense partnership Friday to Russian President Vladimir Putin, but they received a firm public rebuke as the Kremlin made clear it remains deeply skeptical of the administration's foreign policy goals.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates spent the day in talks with Putin and their counterparts, trying to forge common ground on issues that have divided the two countries and led to the coolest relations since the Cold War. U.S. officials said that as part of their private presentation, they laid out new details of a plan to cooperate with Russia in jointly developing a missile defense system that could protect Europe against possible nuclear-tipped missiles from Iran.

But from the time they arrived Friday at Putin's dacha in the suburbs of Moscow, the two Cabinet secretaries seemed on the defensive. Putin kept Gates and Rice waiting for more than a half hour, then greeted them warmly before launching into a harangue about U.S. plans to set up key facilities for the missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic.

The Russian president, who likes to keep opponents guessing, also introduced an issue that American officials had indicated would not be on the agenda: Putin threatened to pull out of a long-standing treaty, known as INF, eliminating intermediate- and short-range nuclear weapons because it covers only Russia and the United States.

Putin seemed to mock the U.S. missile defense plan with biting language. 'We may decide someday to put missile defense systems on the moon, but before we get to that we may lose a chance for agreement because of you implementing your own plans,' he told Rice and Gates.

Putin also warned the United States against 'forcing forward your previous agreements with Eastern European countries.'

Rice and Gates sat impassively through the monologue for about eight minutes, with Rice in particular looking annoyed. When it was their turn to speak, though, both sought to accentuate agreement.

Gates, raising the specter of a threat that he said faces both Russia and the United States, told Putin, 'We have an ambitious agenda of security issues that concern both of us, including, as you suggest, development of missile systems by others in the neighborhood - I would say in particular, Iran.'

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