Albright’s Emphasis to Russia: U.S. an Ally, Not a Foe

MOSCOW —  For three days early this week, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright drove home one central point to her Russian hosts: We want to work with you, not against you.

Her schedule, which included co-chairing a successful Middle East development conference with her Russian counterpart, Igor S. Ivanov, and a bilateral agenda with issues where Moscow and Washington share at least some ground, helped reinforce her message.

Her prolonged meeting Wednesday in the Kremlin with acting Russian President Vladimir V. Putin--a visit scheduled for 45 minutes that lasted close to three hours--seemed to go well, even providing grounds for hope that the current strain in U.S.-Russian ties can be overcome.

Later, Albright told reporters that Putin had come across as an energetic, patient, open, informed problem solver, who appeared receptive--at least in part--to her message.

“I was impressed by the kind of can-do approach that President Putin put forward in terms of the issues that we discussed,” she said. Putin’s manner was practical rather than dogmatic, she said.

Her meeting was the first by a senior member of a Western government with Putin since he became acting president New Year’s Eve, so her generally upbeat, albeit sketchy, assessment is considered significant--especially since Putin’s intentions for Russia in foreign affairs remain a question mark.

However, there were enough warning signs during her visit here to make one point clear: Rebuilding the trust required for a meaningful partnership between Washington and Moscow will be a long and difficult task.

Among the issues:

* Chechnya: Albright’s repeated efforts to coax Russian leaders to consider some form of political dialogue to end the war in Chechnya were flatly rebuffed. If Putin is a “can-do” leader, he seems to take a “won’t-do” stance when it comes to launching a political dialogue with representatives from the breakaway republic.

“Neither of us minced words on Chechnya . . . [but] I don’t think we’re any closer to a political solution [there],” Albright said following the meeting. She said Putin set out a vision of greater political autonomy and economic reconstruction for Chechyna but gave no hint how he planned to “get from here to there.”

Albright said he did, however, seem receptive to proposals she made to send a humanitarian needs assessment team to Chechnya and to ease restrictions on accredited journalists attempting to cover the war.

* Suspicion: An Albright speech earlier Wednesday at the Russian Diplomatic Academy making the case for deeper U.S.-Russian cooperation drew skepticism as well as applause. Two of the four questions allowed from the audience after the speech expressed concern about the preponderance of America’s power. One young questioner merely shook his head in disbelief as she tried to explain America was seeking partnership with Russia, not dominance.

“I know we’re going through a kind of strange period in U.S.-Russia relations, but I hope very much we’ll get through it,” she concluded.

* Priorities: Russian foreign affairs specialists say Westerners have dramatically underestimated the significance of Putin’s arrival in the Kremlin, that it signals a new focus on domestic affairs, an emphasis on the restoration of central power and a corresponding de-emphasis of foreign affairs.

“That’s why Ivanov looks so calm--he knows he’s got nothing to lose and nothing to gain,” said Anatoly Utkin, an advisor to the lower house of parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee. “There will be no more expectations of American money or Russia helping America out around the world.”

Utkin predicted that China will increasingly become a focus of Russian foreign policy, with Moscow expanding its arms sales to Beijing and also helping it strategically.

One area in which Albright seemed to achieve at least the hope of headway is the divisive issue of arms control, where Russia opposes America’s desire to amend the 28-year-old Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. Washington is expected to decide by midyear whether to order development of a system that could guard the United States against a limited missile attack from a small, yet dangerous, “rogue” state such as North Korea.

Albright said she had been encouraged by Putin’s apparent openness to solutions as long as they preserved the fundamentals of the ABM Treaty.

“It’s a diplomatic opening that we’re trying to focus on,” commented a senior State Department official, cautioning that Putin’s comments did not represent a dramatic policy shift. While U.S. officials have tried to convince Russia that it faces the same threat, Moscow fears an American national missile defense system would negate the Kremlin’s own nuclear deterrent and touch off a new arms race.