Analysis: Putin-Bush Partnership Durable

Russian President Vladimir Putin, his face reflected on the desk, speaks in a nationwide television address broadcast in Moscow,Thursday, Nov. 29, 2007. President Vladimir Putin on Thursday strongly urged Russians to cast ballots for the main pro-Kremlin party United Russia whose ticket he's leading in Sunday's parliamentary vote. (AP Photo/RIA Novosti, Dmitry Astakhov, Presidential Press Service ) (Dmitry Astakhov - AP)

Now a senior foreign policy fellow at the Brookings Institution, Rodman said Putin's government has been bullying Ukraine and Georgia, pressuring Estonia, arming the Chinese and trying to squeeze the United States out of central Asia.

He also cited Russia's objection to an administration plan to install an anti-missile defense system in the Czech Republic and Poland.

And yet, he said, "the only reasonable American policy is to see if we can try to do business on some of these issues."

Ariel Cohen, the senior Russia expert at the Heritage Foundation, said that Russia is retreating from democratic values that many thought Russia had embraced after the collapse of communism.

Because the election is being conducted, he said, "in the atmosphere of searching for enemies at home and abroad, questions then arise regarding Russia's reliability as a foreign policy partner of the United States."

And, Cohen said in an interview, "this is especially crucial as the Iranian nuclear issue dominates the international agenda."

"On the one hand you have retreat from democracy," he said, "but you still have Russia as an indispensable partner of the U.S., no matter what."

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EDITOR'S NOTE _ Barry Schweid has covered U.S. diplomacy for The Associated Press since 1973.