RUSSIA:RUSSIAN PRESIDENT Vladimir Putin yesterday delivered a carefully calibrated criticism of western policy towards Russia, berating the 26-member Nato alliance for what he called the "total demonisation" of his country.
Mr Putin criticised the alliance's ambition to expand right up to the Russian border, arguing it was "overblown" for the organisation to call itself a "democratiser".
But Mr Putin, who will meet US president George Bush tomorrow for a bilateral meeting that focuses on arms control, was careful to avoid the aggressive attacks on the West that have been his hallmark for more than a year.
In a press conference at the Bucharest summit that followed a speech to Nato heads of government, Mr Putin said another cold war was impossible, adding: "Let's be friends, guys, and be frank and open."
A senior Kremlin official said Mr Putin even raised the possibility of Russia returning to the Conventional Armed Forces in Europe Treaty, which it left last year.
"We are ready to return to the treaty but expect a mutual step," he was quoted as saying in the closed session with Nato leaders.
In both his appearances yesterday, Mr Putin expressed anger that Nato had this week pledged that Ukraine and Georgia could one day become members. One sign of this anger was that Moscow refused to sign a draft Nato-Russia communiqué at the summit close.
According to a US official, Russia insisted that the document must contain "compensatory language" following Nato's pledge to the two former Soviet republics.
However, the US refused to concede such language. As a result, the US official said, Russia refused to agree to any communiqué.
Even so, diplomats said it was far from certain that Nato's offer to Ukraine and Georgia had undermined the chances of a deal between Mr Putin and Mr Bush in the Black Sea resort of Sochi tomorrow.
One European official said Mr Putin's language was nowhere near as aggressive as it had been in a speech in Munich last year, when he threatened to point Russian missiles at the West again.
"It was the tone of a man who was speaking more in sorrow than in anger," said the diplomat.
In Sochi this weekend, Mr Bush and Mr Putin are expected to sign a "strategic framework" document, highlighting areas of co-operation and mapping out where disagreements remain and how they might be resolved.
Officials from both sides say the paper reflects a desire to put the US-Russian relationship on a more stable and sustainable footing as both countries prepare for a change of president. Topics understood to be included are co-operation on counter-terrorism and non-proliferation.