US takes a harder line with Russia

The White House is getting tough with Russia, concerned with what it perceives as Vladimir Putin's retreat from democracy and a willingness to use petropolitics to reassert regional dominance.

President Bush will bring the hardening stance with him when he visits President Putin this summer - even though it may complicate American efforts for international action against Iran over nuclear ambitions.

The new US pressure comes as an emboldened Russia tries to balance several goals. It is determined to build stability and order at home, as well as regain lost ground in the Eurasian region. And it wants to enhance its membership in the club of world powers.

It is this desire for world respect, analysts say, that the Bush administration is hoping to play on. The problem, they add, is that a more confident and economically robust Russia may be less susceptible to outside pressures than just a few years ago.

"Image and a sense of Russia's place in the world count for the Kremlin, no question," says Andrew Kuchins, a specialist in US-Russian relations at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington. "The problem for the administration now is that these things counted a lot more for the Russians when they were weak."

The new line on Russia comes after a lengthy interagency reassessment of Russia policy by the administration and as Mr. Bush prepares to attend the G-8 summit in July, which Russia is hosting for the first time.

The tone of Bush administration policy since 2001 was set by Bush's famous comment that he had looked into Putin's soul and was pleased with what he saw. But it appears that the administration has taken a second look, and likes less well what it's seeing now.

The darker vision was outlined by Vice President Dick Cheney in a speech last week in Vilnius, Lithuania, in which he said that a regressing Russia has "a choice to make" between "a return to democratic reform" and "greater respect among fellow nations" or more "unfair and improper" restrictions on Russians' rights.

Deliberately making his point at a democracy conference in a former Soviet satellite attended by the presidents of several other former Soviet dependents, Mr. Cheney also said Russia is using its vast energy holdings "as tools of intimidation or blackmail" on its neighbors.

Cheney's words were criticized in some corners as likely to antagonize the Russians at a time when the administration is touting its diplomatic efforts. But others welcomed them for their candor on US concerns. "I do see Cheney's statements reflecting a new tone and a new theme in terms of our engagement with Russia, but I don't interpret them as an effort to isolate Russia," says Mark Brzezinski, the National Security Council's director of Russia-Eurasian affairs in the Clinton administration.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, whose academic training was in Soviet studies, has also started casting doubt on Russia's direction. And some human rights activists and even some Republican leaders, including Sen. John McCain (R) of Arizona, have called on Bush to boycott the July summit in St. Petersburg to send a jolting message to the Kremlin.

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