Putin Chats Up The Brits
Russian President Vladimir Putin, seeking closer ties with Europe and an improved international image, told British business leaders Monday that Russia has learned from past mistakes and faced the future with "tremendous self-confidence."
Putin, on his first trip to the West as president, met with Prime Minister Tony Blair and also had an appointment with Queen Elizabeth II at Windsor Castle, west of London.
Groups of demonstrators dogged Putin, angered at the Russians' tough military campaign against separatists in Chechnya and allegations that troops have used excessive force and executed civilians in the breakaway republic.
As the Russian leader's bulletproof limousine swept up to Blair's 10 Downing Street residence, where he held talks and had lunch, some 50-60 protesters chanted slogans and waved banners demanding "Stop the torture in Chechnya."
"The Prime Minister is not going to apologize for developing a good relationship with a new world leader," Blair's spokesman Alastair Campbell said just before the meeting with Putin began.
"What we won't do is to allow the entirety of our relations with Russia...to be defined by one issue," said Campbell.
Putin, a longtime KGB agent who never held elected office until last month's presidential vote, has made it clear that Russia's future lies with Europe.
"Russia is not a shortened map of the ex-Soviet Union. It is a country which has tremendous self-confidence, a self-confidence based not only on our experience of reform but on errors we have committed," Putin told the Confederation of British Industry before meeting Blair at the start of the 24-hour visit.
"We have tried to learn the lesson, and during the last years we have learned how to distinguish real opportunities from superficial opportunities," he said.
He pledged to tackle Russia's burdensome tax code, create an independent judicial system, and said his primary goal was to integrate Russia into the world economy.
Initial reaction was favorable. "He's saying the right things. If even some of it happens, it will be very positive," said Richard Olver, chief executive of exploration and production at BP Amoco.
British commentators said Putin appeared to have singled out Britain -- often a bridge between the United States and the European Union -- as a key partner to cultivate.
Blair, who visited St. Petersburg in March, was the first Western leader Putin met after becoming acting president. Blair, who at 46 is one year younger than Putin, left impressed by his energy and ambitions for Russia, aides said.
But while topics such as fighting drugs, international crime and terrorism, and nuclear cooperation dominated the agenda, critics urged Blair to take on Putin over Chechnya.
"Blair has to make clear that Britain will take the lead in bringing Russia to account," said Holly Cartner of the New York-base Human Rights Watch.
On Friday, the Russian Parliament, the Duma ratified the START II treaty. Putin's predecessor, Boris Yeltsin, had repeatedly failed to win approval for the nuclear arms reduction agreement.
Putin hinted Monday that Finance Minister Mikhail Kasyanov would "likely" be appointed the new prime minister after his May 7 inauguration, according to the Russian agency, Prime-Tass.
Kasyanov, who is also first deputy prime minister, is seeking to persuade creditor nations to write off about a third of Russia's $31.8 billion Soviet-era debt.