Bush, Putin talk about shared goals

MOSCOW – With a public dismissal of differences between them, President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared Sunday on the eve of an important anniversary to declare their shared interest in containing Iran’s nuclear intentions and seeking peace in the Middle East.

Bush and Putin met at the Russian president’s dacha outside Moscow the night before a Victory Day parade in Moscow’s Red Square that will celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Allied defeat of Nazi Germany. Russia’s commemoration marks the day Germany surrended to the Soviet Union.

“It is a moment where the world will recognize the great bravery and sacrifice the Russian people made in the defeat of Nazism,” said Bush, standing alongside Putin and thanking him for cooperating with Europe’s goal of limiting Iran’s nuclear program and pursuing Middle East peace. “There’s a lot we can do together.”

Bush celebrated the anniversary earlier Sunday – the date the German surrender took effect – at a sprawling U.S. military cemetery in Margraten in the Netherlands.

“There is no power like the power of freedom, and no soldier as strong as a soldier who fights for that freedom,” said Bush, addressing thousands of aging veterans and their families surrounded by the marble headstones of one of Europe’s largest American cemeteries.

While Bush will join 50 other world leaders at Moscow’s Victory Day parade, most of the spotlight has focused on Bush’s meeting with Putin.

This followed a tour of the Baltic states in which Bush called on Russia to renounce the Soviet postwar occupation of the Baltics and open its own society to more democracy, a visit the Russians protested. The Bush administration insisted it is not “lecturing” Putin on democracy, and Putin has made it clear he wants no such lecture.

In their meeting, the two leaders reaffirmed a willingness to contain weapons of mass destruction, according to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. They discussed reform of the United Nations as well. Much of the meeting centered on the Middle East, according to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

“The evening kind of confirmed the excellent relationship between the two men,” U.S. National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley said after a 45-minute meeting between Bush and Putin and a two-hour dinner with their wives. “The conversations were cordial, extensive, lighthearted at times.”

Putin approached their public appearance here with levity.

“I’m aware of the fact that you currently are confronted with immense tasks with respect to social sphere,” Putin told Bush, suggesting that the two must address “energy-related and security-related questions. … That will be very helpful in addressing the problems which are confronted by people in the street in our countries.”

Putin also joked about a comic roast of Bush that the president’s wife delivered at a Washington dinner a week ago. Putin told Bush, “I could see how Laura attacked you sometimes, so at today’s dinner we will have a chance to protect you.”

Bush played along, as Putin allowed the American president to drive his 1956 Volga sedan from one building to another at Putin’s birch-shrouded compound for dinner with the wives: “Be careful,” Bush joked to reporters. “He’s giving me a driving lesson.”

Aboard Air Force One en route to Moscow, Rice suggested that the discussion of disputes between Bush and Putin is a healthy sign.

“I’ve always said that when the United States and Russia get to the place that it’s normal trade disputes, that’s not a bad thing,” Rice said. “But we do have a number of those to discuss.”

Rice also sought to clarify Bush’s remarks the day before in Latvia that, just as Russia should denounce the “oppressive” Soviet occupation of the Baltic states after World War II, the United States acknowledges that it took part in the 1945 Yalta agreement that partitioned Europe and enabled the Russians to control Poland.

“When the president acknowledged yesterday that Yalta had, in fact, contributed to the division of Europe, I think he was trying to make clear that nobody doubts the intentions of the American leadership in 1945, which was clearly to end the war and to have free elections in Eastern Europe,” Rice said.

Standing earlier in the day on ground where Allied forces bravely advanced, Bush marked the 60th anniversary of victory in Europe with a solemn declaration that “freedom is the birthright of all mankind” and said the liberation that swept Europe six decades ago is advancing today from Afghanistan to the Middle East.

“We come to this ground to remember the cause for which these soldiers fought and triumphed,” Bush said. “On this day, we celebrate the victory they won, and we recommit ourselves to the great truth that they defended, that freedom is the birthright of all mankind.”

The president stood on a low stage erected before the towering, flag-draped monument of a military cemetery where 8,301 Americans rest.

The Netherlands American Cemetery is the third-largest cemetery for American soldiers in Europe, with the largest ones situated at Normandy and Lorraine.

The serenity of the stones arranged in sweeping arcs and the rolling, verdant farmland surrounding the tree-lined cemetery belies the fact that this remote corner of the Netherlands served as one of the final battlegrounds of World War II, as Allied Forces attacked the Siegfried Line and made their final march toward Berlin.