Russia's newfound clout pushes US to rethink ties

They say if President George W. Bush were to peer into the soul of his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin today -- as he famously claimed to have done during their first meeting in 2000 -- he was sure to find a much less kindred and trustworthy spirit.

"Russia arguably is the most important country in the world to go from semi-democratic to undemocratic during the Bush administration," Michael McFaul, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution in Washington and a political science professor at Stanford University, told AFP.

"I'm sure Bush regrets saying what he did about Putin (in 2000)," McFaul added. "He had judged this guy one way and he was wrong about it.

"Now Bush is much more suspicious and he's disappointed."

The latest signs of trouble between the two countries emerged last week with a US Defense Department report suggesting that Moscow provided intelligence to Saddam Hussein at the start of the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was expected to raise the issue when she meets later this week in Berlin with her Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, who has denied the accusations, saying they were politically motivated.

The Pentagon report came amid brewing tensions between the United States and Russia on a number of issues, notably Putin's recent invitation to the Palestinian militant group Hamas to come to Moscow, his refusal to back US-led moves for UN sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program, and his support of the authoritarian regime in Belarus.

Washington has also expressed concern about Moscow using its new status as an energy giant to intimidate its neighbors, and has criticized Russia's decision to sell uranium to India.

Andrew Kuchins, a senior associate in the Russia and Eurasia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said it was clear that Moscow's behaviour was aimed at asserting itself as an independent major power not subservient to the United States.

"The Russians don't want to be talked down to by the US," Kuchins told AFP. "They see themselves as an independent player and they certainly want to be viewed as a significant player in the Middle East -- from Iran, to Iraq to the Mideast peace process."

McFaul said Putin's invitation to Hamas reflected the Russian leader's bid to undercut the United States on the world stage.

"Putin looks at any actions that weaken the US as good for Russia and vice versa," he said.

The fact that Russia is preparing to host the Group of Eight summit in Saint Petersburg has also emboldened Putin, analysts say.

"Right now the Bush administration just wants to get through the G8 summit ... trying to make that as least negative an event as possible," McFaul said. "After that it's kind of over in terms of policy until new election in both countries (in 2008)."

Andrei Piontkovsky, a Russian political scientist who is a visiting fellow at the Hudson Institute in Washington, said the Putin administration's foreign policy decisions of recent months reflected its hostility to the United States and the West in general.

"I think the US needs to face reality and stop pretending that Putin is an ally," Piontkovsky told AFP. "Maybe several years ago Bush looked into (Putin's) soul and saw something there.

"But what really concerns me today is this very evident flight of Russian foreign policy from the West into the camp of anyone who is confronting the West."

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