Kremlin Sells Russia's Best Self

To G-8's Captive Audience, Country Promoted as Superpower

After President Bush departed, President Putin said he would not back Bush's plan on Iran's nuclear program, calling talk of sanctions "premature." (By Ivan Sekretarev -- Associated Press)

ST. PETERSBURG, July 17 -- The setting was a picture of Czarist splendor. The host was charming if occasionally acid-tongued. And even the unexpected shadow of violence in the Middle East was an opportunity to improvise deftly and reinforce the political message: Russia is ascendant and its president, Vladimir Putin, is the equal of his powerful guests.

The annual summit of the leaders of the Group of Eight industrial democracies, which ended Monday at a palace outside St. Petersburg, was almost everything the Kremlin had hoped for.

"I believe the Kremlin's main goal was to improve Russia's image and to demonstrate to both Russians and the world that Russia has restored its status as a superpower," said Yevgeny Volk, head of the Moscow office of the Heritage Foundation. "And from this point of view, Putin and the Kremlin succeeded."

Indeed, the summit sometimes seemed like a three-day tutorial on Russia's revival, with Putin as professor. "It is clear that Russia's growing economic potential is enabling it to play an increasingly important role in global development," he said at a post-summit news conference.

After the leaders struggled to reach a common position on the conflicts in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, Putin spoke to journalists about Russia's role as a critical broker with lines of communication to all parties and its ability to mitigate the stridency of other powers at the summit, unnamed but clearly the United States.

In an 18th-century palace re-gilded with the bounty of Russia's new riches from its energy wealth, the Russian leader oversaw a smooth-running meeting in which the contentious issue of Russia's democratic direction barely ruffled the rococo retreat.

"Western leaders meekly avoided unpleasantries about democracy," said Lilia Shevtsova, author of "Putin's Russia."

Behind closed doors, the G-8 leaders discussed democracy at dinner Sunday after Putin broached the subject, according to diplomats.

"It was a very open exchange of views," said European Commission President José Manuel Barroso on a flight back to Brussels, according to the Reuters news agency. "We have great respect for the contribution that Putin himself gave to a stable Russia. It is not in our interest to have an unstable, weak Russia."

There were a couple of awkward moments, for instance, when President Bush spoke of bringing freedom of the press and religion to Iraq and added that "a lot of people in our country would hope that Russia would do the same thing."

Putin was ready with a put-down.

"Well, of course, we wouldn't want the same kind of democracy as in Iraq, I'll say that quite honestly," said Putin, eliciting a ripple of laughter from watching reporters.

He waited until Bush had left for Washington on Monday before telling a news conference that he would not support the president's strategy on Iran's nuclear program. "Speaking of sanctions against Iran is premature," Putin said. "We haven't reached that point yet."

The normally opaque Kremlin put on an extravagant show of Western-style openness to the international media. It hired Ketchum Inc., a U.S. public relations firm, which in the days before the summit set up a series of briefings for American reporters with Russian officials. Putin's top aide for the summit answered questions on the record on the same day that two Bush administration officials briefed anonymously.

Once the summit began, Ketchum organized one news briefing after another with a range of Russian officials, all broadcast for reporters on a special television channel. Putin, who normally holds just one news conference in Moscow each year, gave three by himself during the summit and a fourth at Bush's side. Putin's spokesman was even brought by a Ketchum official to a U.S. filing center to brief the White House press corps.

In particular, Putin touted a summit declaration on energy security, a major Western concern because of fears that Russia has used its resources as a weapon. For example, Russia shut off natural gas supplies to Ukraine in January during a price dispute. Putin said that energy security has been redefined to include Russian interests.

"Previously, energy security was interpreted as meaning stable supply of energy resources to the main consumers," Putin said. "Now we have convinced our partners that energy security is a much broader concept that extends to the extraction, transport and sale of energy."

For Putin personally, it was an extraordinary road to the palace. He grew up in St. Petersburg back when it was known as Leningrad, the only surviving son of a dour father in an impoverished family living in a dank communal apartment that had no bathroom or hot water but plenty of rats.

On Saturday night, he stood outside the entrance to Peterhof, summer palace of Peter the Great, its facade extending more than 400 yards. His dinner guests, couple by couple, leaders and spouses, were dropped at the edge of the building to begin the 200-yard walk to where Putin awaited them.