International Herald Tribune - 03.05.2007

The Bush team begins new diplomatic initiative with Russia

By Thom Shanker and Helene Cooper

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration has decided to reach out more often and more intensively to Russia at a time when the leadership in Moscow is harshly criticizing American policy, and some scholars say the United States has not aggressively tended to an important relationship.

American plans to base elements of a missile defense system in Eastern Europe, as well Washington's support for expanding NATO, have compounded a sense of resentment within a Russian leadership that now feels emboldened by a flood of petrodollars.

Senior administration officials said their new initiative of diplomatic outreach calls for engaging Russian leaders in private discussions that will illustrate that the United States is putting extra effort into nurturing the bilateral relationship, and that Russia deserves a more thorough dialogue on American foreign policy and national security plans.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's stop in Berlin late last month to confer with her Russian counterpart on Iran was the first step of the new initiative; that was followed by a visit to Moscow later the same week by Stephen Hadley, the national security adviser, whose agenda included detailed descriptions of American policy, administration officials said.

Senior administration officials said initial planning also is under way for a more intensive dialogue between the Russian and American militaries, a forum that may lend itself to fuller technical exchanges about Washington's plans for missile defense.

Administration officials said they would not yield ground on the substance of the Russian critique. In particular, Russian threats will not halt Washington's plans to place elements of a missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic, nor diminish Washington's support of NATO expansion even as the Atlantic alliance continues to invite Russian delegates at a number of special NATO-Russia Council sessions.

Following harsh criticism from President Vladimir Putin of Russia and his inner circle of political advisers and generals, there is a growing acknowledgment among officials in Washington that the United States has not responded as rapidly or eloquently as it might have to a widespread sense of grievance in Russia.

This frustration in Russia grows from a view held in the Kremlin and broadly among its people that, in the years after the Soviet Union fell, the Russian leadership accommodated many of Washington's interests — but that the relationship has been one- sided, and that Washington has not reciprocated.

"Our response to that is, if that is their view, then we'll come back and we'll have more consultation and we'll do it more extensively and more intensively so that there is a good understanding of each other's views," said a senior administration official involved in designing the new strategy of reaching out to Russia.

"That is not to say that every objection and concern has to be accommodated or that they have some kind of veto over our program," the official said. "What it does say is that we should be willing to sit down, both Russia and the United States, in a real dialogue, and have a real dialogue where we try and address the interests and concerns of both sides."

Those mutual interests, administration officials said, include halting the nuclear ambitions of Iran and North Korea, cooperating on counterterrorism and counternarcotics efforts — and on building missile defense, which American officials argue should interest Russia, which is within striking distance of both Iran and North Korea.

The stunning directness of Moscow's recent public complaints is viewed as undermining U.S.-Russia relations. Equally worrisome is that the harsh tone of the Kremlin's comments has greatly troubled governments and populations of European allies caught in between — especially in former Soviet client states in Eastern Europe that joined the NATO alliance after the collapse of communism.

Some analysts said initially that Putin's speech was designed for a Russian domestic audience. But there now is a growing sense among Russia experts that the tough language was specifically aimed at the United States and the NATO allies to alert the world to Kremlin frustrations.

"We weren't paying attention — we were distracted, busy, with other problems in the world, in particular Iraq," said Michael McFaul, a Russia scholar and professor at Stanford University. "The administration is now put in a position of playing defense, as we are finally seeing the international consequences of the rather dramatic internal transformation inside Russia with the erosion of democracy, a new ruling class, a massive transfer of property rights from so-called oligarchs to, basically, friends of Putin, most of whom are from the old KGB."

Senior administration officials said the new effort to reach out to Russia already has been put into action, and included a decision by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to consult her Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, during meetings in Berlin on Feb. 21 and 22 about whether Russia had the appetite to pursue a second Security Council sanctions resolution against Iran.

The Berlin meetings were designed in large part to show Russia that the Bush administration was consulting with Moscow ahead of its diplomatic initiatives.

Rice and Lavrov have a peppery relationship. While the two have met often to discuss Iran, most of the sessions have been in official formats that gather the five permanent members of the Security Council and Germany, in contrast to the more ad hoc Berlin session with Lavrov and counterparts from Germany and the European Union.

Rice's meetings with Lavrov were followed in the same week by a visit to Moscow by Hadley, the national security adviser. Although Hadley's trip was organized before the outbursts from Russian officials, he used his visit to offer great detail about the administration's agenda, including plans for missile defense.

Hadley also gave a full description of a pending decision by the United States to build a new generation of nuclear warheads, according to American and Russian officials. Hadley offered those comments even before the Russians asked about the warhead program in that meeting.

The new round of verbal attacks from Russia began on Feb. 10 in Munich, when Putin used a keynote address at a security conference to accuse the United States of overstepping its borders to impose its will upon the world through the unilateral application of military power. He criticized missile defense and NATO expansion.

That was followed by comments from the Russian missile commander, General Nikolai Solovtsov, who threatened to aim Russian weapons at states in Eastern Europe that might join the American missile defense program. Lavrov challenged American positions on Middle East policy in recent weeks, and Sergei Ivanov, promoted from defense minister to first deputy prime minister, also raised fresh criticism of missile defense.

NATO diplomats expressed frustration at Russia's words of shock over proposals for basing missile interceptors in Poland and radar in the Czech Republic, and they produced lists of the numerous sessions in which officials from Moscow were briefed on the antimissile effort in NATO-Russia Council sessions and in bilateral talks.

But Russian officials complain that those meetings were not two-way consultations about American plans, but one-way notifications at which their concerns were not weighed.

If the Bush administration is going show a new sense of concern for its relationship with Russia, the effort will fall first on Rice to carry out this policy with Lavrov. That, however, might be tough, since the two bicker in public and in private.