New U.S. headache: a resurgent Russia
Relations between Washington and the Kremlin have hit a post- Cold War low as Russia tries to leverage its new wealth and power and the U.S. struggles with crises.

http://www.miamiherald.com/509/story/125079.html

BY WARREN P. STROBEL AND JONATHAN S. LANDAY
6/1/2007

WASHINGTON -- On the eve of next week's G-8 summit meeting, relations between the United States and Russia have ebbed to their lowest level since the Cold War, fueled by Moscow's growing confidence and an apparent Russian perception of U.S. weakness.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has responded to American plans for a European-based missile-defense system by testing a new intercontinental missile, publicly blasted a U.S.-backed initiative to give independence to the Serbian province of Kosovo and frustrated American diplomatic initiatives on several fronts.

U.S. 'IMPERIALISM'
Putin, alluding to U.S. "imperialism," said Thursday that the missile test was a response to the Bush administration's plans to put a missile-defense radar and 10 interceptors in Poland and the Czech Republic.

"We are not the initiators of this new round of the arms race," Putin told a Kremlin news conference.

"Our partners are stuffing Eastern Europe with new weapons," he said. ''What are we supposed to do? We cannot just observe all this."

While the Russian leader is a former KGB officer and his rhetoric echoed of the Cold War, U.S. officials and analysts don't expect a return to U.S.-Russian military confrontation. But the disputes appear certain to cloud the summit of the Group of Eight leaders in Germany, in which President Bush and Putin will participate. Moreover, Russia's assertive posture poses new international headaches for Bush as his administration struggles to deal with intractable crises.

Last month Putin appeared to compare the United States to Nazi Germany, surprising and dismaying top Bush aides.

"We want a 21st-century partnership with Russia, but at times, Russia seems to think and act in the zero-sum terms of another era," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday in Europe, where she tangled with her Russian counterpart on missile defenses and Kosovo.

In an attempt to repair the damage, Bush issued an unusual invitation to Putin this week to join him for two days of talks in early July at the Bush family compound in Kennebunkport, Maine.

"There's an effort to walk back from the brink on both sides," said a State Department official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Still, he acknowledged, ''We're not going to get past the flash points so easily, because they reflect real differences."

The White House shows no signs of backing down on the missile-defense plan, which Russia regards as a major new intrusion by the West toward its borders. Bush will bookend the G-8 summit with stops in the Czech Republic and Poland.

Kosovo is an emotional issue in Russia, which has strong ties to Serbia, a fellow Slavic nation. Russia's U.N. ambassador hinted Thursday that Moscow is ready to veto a U.N. independence plan for the province, which has been under international protection since 1999.

OIL MONEY
Russia's confidence, based in part on its burgeoning oil wealth, and its apparent calculation of U.S. weakness due to the Iraq War are further hurdles to repairing relations.

"The truth is that people notice when Gulliver is tied down," said Daniel Serwer, a former U.S. diplomat who's now with the U.S. Institute for Peace. ''[The Russians] have got bundles of money rolling in and they've got their historical adversary bogged down in Iraq."

The Russians "are back," said a second State Department official. "And a lot of this has to do with a flexing of muscles that come with power. It's a different kind of power" than the Soviet Union's. ''They're wealthy."

William Douglas contributed to this article.