At crossroads, Putin looks West

Today, Putin will meet with EU officials and hold one-to-one talks with NATO Secretary General George Robertson. Topping the agenda is Russia's involvement in the US-led antiterror coalition and ways to cement cooperation in what is shaping up to be a long-term, globe-girdling campaign. But the Kremlin has signaled that it is looking to extend these beginnings into an entire new relationship between Russia and the West. That could include Russia's joining NATO, if the alliance evolved into a more broadly-based security system for Europe, Putin hinted last week. "There is no longer any reason for the West not to conduct talks" on Russian membership in NATO, he said.

The Kremlin is seeking more immediate dividends as well. Russia's admission into the WTO, formerly viewed as a distant possibility, seems fixed for as early as next year after talks between Russian officials and U.S. Trade Representive Robert Zoellick in Moscow last week.

Relief from the burden of Soviet-era debt is also high on Moscow's wish list. Debt-servicing charges by 2003 are calculated to be $19 billion, the size of the country's entire budget for that year.

But there are plenty of pitfalls along the road to a changed relationship. One concern among Russian experts is that the West will deem the Kremlin's cautious commitment to the war on terrorism inadequate. Putin has pledged to share intelligence with Western special services, open Russian air corridors for "humanitarian supplies" to the site of the antiterrorist operation in Central Asia, and take part in non-combat "search and rescue" missions inside Afghanistan. But he has categorically ruled out any use of Russian military forces in the fighting.

"The West should understand that Putin has gone the maximum distance that he is able at this time," says Boris Makarenko of the independent Fund For Political Technologies in Moscow.

Analysts cite a survey by the independent VTsIOM public opinion research center last week that showed 58 percent of Russians, their memories of the USSR's disastrous 1980s war in Afghanistan still fresh, believe their country should remain neutral in the war on terrorism. The poll showed that 72 percent fear that retaliatory strikes in Afghanistan could ignite world war.

Another possible thorn is the ongoing war in Chechnya. Last week, Putin offered for the first time to negotiate with representatives of rebel president-in-hiding Aslan Maskhadov - although Putin said such talks would only concern time and place of rebel surrender.

Meanwhile, Elizabeth Andersen, executive director of the New York-based Human Rights Watch's Europe and Central Asia division, warns: "President Putin has tried to use the events of September 11 to get carte blanche for the conduct of Russian federal forces in Chechnya. "The EU can't allow this to happen."

Russian experts insist that Putin has made a choice that will benefit the world. Says Alexander Solovyov, a political scientist at Moscow State University: "He believes that Russia's moral and political support in this crisis will open an era of trust, and that we can go on from there to build new institutions and a new system of security to bind Russia and the West together for the first time in history."

Material from Agence France-Presse was used in this report.

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