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Putin brings passion, earnestness to summit
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/010617/80/bvhkg.html
By Ron Popeski
BRDO PRI KRANJU, Slovenia (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin has put on a display of passion and earnestness at his first summit with U.S. leader George W. Bush.
He defended his country's policies, while pledging to remain open to discussion.
Putin added a theatrical touch to a news conference closing two hours of talks with Bush on Saturday, producing a Soviet-era document he said underscored Moscow's commitment to good relations with the West.
The Russian leader also showed his now characteristic ease at finding the right tone with world leaders, swapping folksy anecdotes with Bush and holding a long conversation on his own with the U.S. president -- in English.
Putin's theatrical gesture came in response to a reporter's question about prospects of further NATO enlargement to the east, opposed by Russia and due to be decided by the alliance next year.
He pulled out a document he said had once been top secret.
"I'm going to lay it out for you...Look, I'm going to read to you something which was recently declassified," he told reporters on the lawn of a 16th century castle outside the Slovenian capital Ljubljana.
It was, he said, a 1954 Soviet government document sent to NATO proposing Soviet participation in the alliance and NATO's outright rejection of the suggestion. He also recalled that he had not ruled out NATO membership in an interview last year.
"Look, you understand that our attitude toward NATO was not one toward an enemy organisation, of course not...," he said, adding he was grateful to Bush for the opportunity to say this.
FURTHER DIGRESSION
Putin allowed himself a second digression when asked whether he was taking to Belgrade, his next stop after the summit, a concrete plan to resolve Balkan conflicts.
He revealed no concrete plan, but chose instead to speak at length about what Russia describes as discrimination and intolerance against Russian-speakers in the Baltic former Soviet republic of Latvia. Many, he said, were denied Latvian citizenship.
"We don't send weapons there. We don't call it terrorism. We don't try to get people to rise up on the basis of national or ethnic origin or religious feelings," he said.
"We don't encourage people to take up arms to fight against it."
The Kremlin leader deftly parried other queries about Russian defence policy, telling one reporter who asked whether Moscow's military thinking had changed in view of the proposed U.S. anti-missile shield: "This is not a question. I think this has become an interview."
He then answered the question, saying the two sides should approach the issue as partners.
And he bluntly told another corespondent who asked whether he could be trusted: "I'm not going to answer that. I could ask the very same question."
Bush, for his part, was calm in telling journalists that the talks had involved no bargaining and that Russia and the United States should now be friends in dealing with security concerns.
"Friends don't destroy each other. People who cooperate do not have a basis of peace on destruction," he said.
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