'Friends' Bush and Putin leave strained US-Russia ties

0 Comments | AFP, April, 2008

MOSCOW (AFP) — There they were, Vladimir Putin and George W. Bush, in summit neckties, beachside sunglasses and state visit tuxedos, smiling for the cameras over eight years and talking up their warm personal friendship.

But as the couple meet for their swansgong this weekend at Putin's Black Sea coastal home, their eyes will be less on each other than on how history records a "friendship" that has produced little but acrimony in US-Russian relations.

Though Bush famously said he caught a glimpse of Putin's soul at their first meeting in 2001, and though they have met 26 times around the world since, the Bush-Putin duo has failed spectacularly to forge trusting US-Russian ties.

Officials and analysts say their main interest now, as both leaders prepare to...