Aides said Bush wanted to maintain a "supportive relationship" and considered other issues, such as security, "equally valuable" in the U.S.-Russian dialogue. "The goal here is not to criticize, not to accuse," a senior administration official told reporters under ground rules requiring anonymity. "The goal is to understand and to seek common ground and try to move this relationship forward."
But some critics said Bush was too accommodating with the Russians. The two sides produced agreements on issues including accelerating Russian accession to the World Trade Organization, curbing the spread of shoulder-fired rockets and increasing cooperation on energy development, space exploration and AIDS prevention. Yet while Bush and Putin agreed that Iran should not have nuclear weapons, they publicly ignored their disagreement over Russian construction of a nuclear power plant for Tehran. The presidents said nothing in public about Russian arms sales to Syria, a sore point for Washington.
The most significant joint statement announced a package of measures intended to combat nuclear terrorism and secure Russian nuclear materials. But late negotiations watered down a central element. On Wednesday, U.S. officials said the accord will accelerate security upgrades at Russian nuclear facilities to be largely completed by 2008 instead of 2012. But the final text Thursday was fuzzier, agreeing instead to "develop a plan of work through and beyond 2008 on joint projects."
Moreover, the statement made a concession to Russian sensibilities by saying that "the security of nuclear facilities in the U.S. and Russia meet current requirements," an assertion seemingly in conflict with the underlying presumption in U.S. efforts to help Russia improve nuclear security. A new U.S. intelligence report provided to The Washington Post this week concluded that "Russia's nuclear security has been slowly but unevenly improving" but that "risks remain."
"Why is the president of the United States in the position of taking Putin's side against his own intelligence community?" asked Stephen R. Sestanovich, a former Clinton administration ambassador to former Soviet republics.
Before meeting with Putin, Bush addressed thousands of Slovaks, linking the bloody struggle to establish a democratic government in Iraq to the Velvet Revolution that helped bring down the Iron Curtain. Speaking in a downtown piazza in front of this city's National Theater, Bush said that the image of Iraqi voters going to the polls in January conjured memories of the series of protests that led to the end of Communist rule here in 1989.
"As you watched jubilant Iraqis dancing in the streets last month, holding up ink-stained fingers, you remembered Velvet Days," Bush said. "For the Iraqi people, this is their 1989, and they will always remember who stood with them in their quest for freedom."
Several thousand people, some waving small Slovak and American flags, braved low temperatures, light snow and tight security to listen to Bush's speech. Many seemed more curious than inspired, and some said they had mixed feelings about the U.S. invasion of Iraq. A small group of protesters tried unsuccessfully to drown out Bush's talk by chanting slogans and waving banners protesting his Iraq and environmental policies.
In his short address, Bush returned to recent themes as he hailed the transforming power of democracy. He thanked Slovakia for supporting U.S. incursions into Iraq and Afghanistan. "The American people are proud to call you allies and friends and brothers in the cause of freedom," Bush said.
Baker reported from Washington.
