On the last day of the summit meeting, which was held in Genoa, Italy, Bush and Putin held talks and came to an agreement to "reduce nuclear weapons on both sides while allowing the United States to build a missile defense shield," reported an article in the July 23 Washington Post.

At a news conference at the Genoa meeting, Putin said he was now rethinking his prior warning that he would convert single warhead missiles into multiple-warhead ones if Washington were to abrogate the Antiballistic Missile treaty. "If, as we understood from each other today, we are ready to look at the issue of offensive and defensive systems together as a set, we might not ever need to look at that option," the Russian president stated.

Commenting on this development, the Washington Post noted, "White House officials, who had made little headway in building support from European allies for the U.S. positions on global warming and missile defense were glad that Putin had been so cooperative on arms control."

The United States currently has about 7,300 strategic nuclear weapons; Russia has about 6,100.

Bush has been advocating linking the reduction on offensive nuclear weapons to winning agreement for a missile defense shield even prior to assuming the presidency. In a May 2000 campaign speech he called for cutting U.S. nuclear stocks to "the lowest possible number consistent with our national security."

The week following the G-8 meeting Condoleezza Rice, Bush's national security adviser, traveled to Moscow to further pursue this discussion and to present the Russian president with what the New York Times called "an American blueprint" for "building a new nuclear weapons framework."

"There is a recognition that the United States intends to move forward with missile defense," she said, commenting on her meeting with Russian officials. "You've got a discussion now about how you move forward, not if you move forward. That's considerable progress in the last several months."

In a July 26 New York Times column titled "Victory for Missile Defense," William Safire hailed this latest development. "Vladimir Putin yanked the rug out from under Democrats opposed to missile defense," he wrote, when the two leaders "agreed to work on a new strategic framework to alter or replace the old Antiballistic Missile Treaty, in tandem with lowering each nation's stockpile of nuclear weapons."

Safire backed Bush's course and urged the administration to "use our planned unilateral reduction of offensive missiles to 'defuse confrontation with Russia,' as Bush suggested last year. But we should not let America's timetable for a missile defense be determined by Russia's desire for us to reduce offensive missiles to a level below what our military considers essential to national security."

Meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, who was part of the diplomatic delegation visiting Russia along with Rice and Commerce Secretary Donald Evans, floated a plan for Moscow to set up a few capitalist investment zones. According to the Wall Street Journal, the treasury secretary "urged Russia to enact significant reforms in a few political regions to demonstrate how the entire country could attract private foreign investment." In these areas, the Journal said, "officials would take a tough stand against corruption, with the goal of making contracts enforceable and the rule of law paramount."

O'Neill commented, "If they choose a place they can get their arms around, the probability of making a real difference is greater than if they try to achieve this over their entire 5,000-mile expanse at one time"--a failed course pursued earlier by the imperialists in collaboration with the Russian government which was known as "shock therapy."

Treasury officials are also trying to convince the World Bank and European Bank for Reconstruction and Development--so far with limited success--to only provide funds to Russia in regions where they meet what the Journal calls "strict business-climate standards." Capital is basically only going to go to areas that are friendly," said Commerce Secretary Evans. The big-business paper added that "Both cabinet members were effusive in their praise of President Vladimir Putin and his willingness to improve Russia's business climate."
 
 
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