Bush mixes messages for Putin

PRAGUE, Czech Republic - President Bush gave Russian President Vladimir Putin a double-edged message yesterday, reassuring him that he has nothing to fear from a missile-defense system that he abhors, then slapping him verbally for backsliding on democratic reforms.

Bush's words threatened to inflame his already tense relationship with Putin and to overshadow the Group of Eight Summit opening today in Germany.

Bush said he intends to tell Putin when they meet tomorrow at the G-8 summit that the U.S. plan to build a Europe-based missile-defense system poses no threat to Russia.

"My message will be, Vladimir - I call him Vladimir - that you shouldn't fear a missile-defense system," Bush said after meeting with Czech leaders at the ninth-century Prague Castle. "As a matter of fact, why don't you cooperate with us on a missile-defense system? Why don't you participate with the United States?"

After thus extending an olive branch, Bush criticized Putin shortly afterward for repealing democratic reforms in Russia, during a speech extolling the expansion of democracy around the world.

"In Russia, reforms that were once promised to empower citizens have been derailed, with troubling implications for democratic development," Bush said. "Part of a good relationship is the ability to talk openly about our disagreements."

Putin has been livid about the Bush administration's drive to install a sophisticated radar system in the Czech Republic and 10 interceptor missiles in Poland as part of a system that the White House says is needed to block a nuclear attack from a "rogue" nation such as Iran, which doesn't have a long-range ballistic missile and won't for at least eight years, according to U.S. intelligence reports.

Putin argues that the system could be used against Russian missiles and would upset the balance of forces in Europe. He has opposed it with increasingly Cold War-like rhetoric, even threatening to point Russian missiles at European sites if the White House installs the system in Europe.

Bush has been trying to placate Putin. Yesterday he invited Putin to send Russian generals to the United States to see how the system would work. Next month he will host the Russian president at the Bush family compound in Kennebunkport, Maine.

Putin isn't the only one who's worried about the missile-defense system. Polls show that while the Czech government supports the missile-defense system, more than 60 percent of Czechs oppose it, and more than 1,000 people protested it last weekend in Prague.

"The Cold War is over," Bush said in his speech yesterday. "The people of the Czech Republic don't have to choose between being a friend to the United States or a friend with Russia. You can be both. We don't believe in a zero-sum world. We don't believe that one should force a country to choose. We believe, as a matter of fact, when we work together we can achieve important objectives." *