Yorkshire CND - Bush, aides 'grossly misjudged Putin'

12 October 2007
Bush, aides 'grossly misjudged Putin'
By Jonathan S. Landay
McClatchy Newspapers

http://www.mcclatchydc.com:80/227/story/20508.html

Bush, Putin no longer such good friends | View larger image

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration's failure to win Russia's consent to install U.S. missile defenses in its European backyard and a growing list of other disputes suggest that President Bush and his aides have misread the man whose "soul" Bush thought he'd divined when they first met six years ago.

Bush's strategy on Russia assumed that Russian President Vladimir Putin embraced democracy, wanted integration with the West and sought a "strategic partnership" in which Moscow would acquiesce to U.S. policies such as NATO expansion. Feuds could be resolved through the close personal relationship that Bush believed he had with his Russian counterpart.

Instead, fueled by record oil and natural gas prices and resentment of what he lambasted in February as Bush's "almost uncontained hyper use of force," Putin has led global opposition to the U.S. war in Iraq, hosted Palestinians on the U.S. list of terrorist groups, sold anti-aircraft missiles and other arms to Iran and stymied Bush's drive to tighten U.N. sanctions on the Islamic republic for refusing to suspend uranium enrichment.

The Kremlin has steadily increased spending on defense modernization and revived symbolic long-range aerial reconnaissance patrols toward U.S. and European airspace.

Putin also has threatened to re-target Russian nuclear missiles at Europe if Bush deploys U.S. missile defenses in Poland and the Czech Republic, declared his intention to trash treaties that eliminate a class of nuclear missiles and limit conventional military forces in Europe and compared the United States under Bush to Germany under Hitler.

The U.S.-Russian tensions are a far cry from June 2001, when Bush declared after his first meeting with Putin in Slovenia that he'd looked in the Russian leader's eyes, found him "trustworthy" and "was able to get a sense of his soul."

Bush and his aides "grossly misjudged Putin," considering him "a good guy and one of us," said Michael McFaul of Stanford University's Hoover Institution.

The former KGB officer created that illusion partly by appearing to share Bush's political and religious convictions, standard tradecraft employed by intelligence officers to recruit spies, he said.

"Putin . . . is a brilliant case officer," said Carlos Pasqual, a former senior State Department official now at The Brookings Institution, a center-left policy organization in Washington.

What many experts regard as the real Putin — a hard-line, derisive Russian nationalist — was on display Friday as he greeted visiting Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates ahead of talks that failed to break the impasses over missile defense and other key security issues.

After keeping the U.S. officials waiting for 40 minutes, Putin mocked their mission in front of reporters and television cameras.

"Of course, we can sometime in the future decide that some anti-missile defense should be established somewhere on the moon . . . ," he said.

U.S.-Russian tensions, already at their highest since the end of Cold War, could worsen in coming months, fanning new regional instability.

If the United States unilaterally recognizes the independence of Serbia's ethnic Albanian-dominated Kosovo province over Russia's objections, Putin may respond by backing Serbia's annexation of northern Kosovo, igniting an ethnic Albanian backlash.

The Kremlin also could recognize the independence of separatist enclaves in the pro-Western former Soviet republics of Moldova and Georgia, encouraging Serb nationalists in Bosnia-Herzegovina to revive a succession drive that ended in 1995.

U.S. policy came to pivot on Putin even though Rice, the administration's top Russia expert, had lambasted former President Clinton for being overly cozy with the Russian leader's predecessor, Boris Yeltsin.

Despite their emphasis on promoting democracy, Bush, Rice and other U.S. officials said little about massive human rights abuses in Chechnya, Putin's gradual rollback of democratic and economic reforms and his suppression of Russia's independent media.

The 2001 al Qaida attacks in New York and Washington led to unprecedented security and intelligence-sharing cooperation between the United States and Russia, which was struggling to contain a costly Muslim guerrilla war in Chechnya.

"We wanted him on our side in the global war on terror," said Pasqual.

Putin backed the U.S. intervention in Afghanistan, including America's use of bases in former Soviet republics, and acquiesced in the U.S. withdrawal from a Cold War treaty prohibiting the deployment of anti-ballistic missile systems.

Emerging from years of financial chaos that had hobbled its military, Russia quickly concluded a 2002 nuclear arms reduction pact mostly on Bush's terms.

Putin, however, began to sour on the relationship as Bush promoted the inclusion of former Warsaw Pact nations in NATO and supported the elections of pro-Western governments in the former Soviet republics of Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan.

U.S. officials refused to accept "that the Russians do have an interest in what they call their 'near abroad,'" said a former top State Department official who requested anonymity to speak more freely. "The Russians would have differences of opinion with us, and we would not acknowledge that we had differences of opinions."

ON THE WEB

The text of Friday's U.S.-Russian news conference in Moscow.

The English text of Russian President Vladimir Putin's Feb. 10 speech to the 43rd Munich Conference on Security Policy.

12 October 2007
Meeting highlights growing U.S.-Russia tensions
By Nancy A. Youssef
McClatchy Newspapers

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/world/story/20503.html

MOSCOW - A much anticipated meeting Friday between Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and top Russian officials made no progress toward resolving the disputes over missile defense and other issues that have sunk relations between the two nations to their lowest level since the end of the Cold War.

Instead, the meeting exposed how the high hopes that Russia and America would cooperate on missile defenses, international arms control treaties and counterterrorism have given way to fear that their differences over those issues and others, such as Iran, have recharged the rivalry between the two countries.

The day began on a sour note. When asked by reporters whether the talks could lead to a breakthrough, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov replied: "Breaks definitely, (but) through or down, I don't know." Russian President Vladimir Putin then kept Gates and Rice waiting for 40 minutes and mocked some of the U.S. proposals on missile defense as the two looked on, at times appearing to be taken aback.

"Of course we can sometime in the future decide that some anti-missile defense system should be established somewhere on the moon," Putin said. "But before we reach such arrangements, we will lose the opportunity for fixing some particular arrangements between us."

Gates and Rice tried to reassure the Russians that the administration's proposal to deploy ballistic missile defenses in the Czech Republic and Poland - former satellites of the old Soviet Union - is intended to protect Europe from a possible Iranian threat, not to counter Russia's nuclear missiles.

"It would have no impact on Russia's strategic deterrent," Gates said. In an effort to assuage Russian concerns, he and Rice proposed that observers and a system of "transparency" accompany the new missile defenses.

But the Russians' problem was geography, not transparency. Lavrov called on the U.S. to freeze its deployment plans, which he and Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov called "anti-Russian." The Russians also threatened to respond to any deployments, but didn't suggest how they might do so.

"There is a potential threat for us here," Lavrov said. "And we will have to take some measure to neutralize this threat. We would prefer to avoid such a scenario."

The Bush administration remains determined to proceed with its plans to install interceptors in Poland and a missile tracking radar in the Czech Republic, U.S. officials said, especially because it believes that Iran is developing nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.

Before Bush and Gates even arrived, however, Putin, who's scheduled to visit Tehran next month, pointedly declared that there's no evidence that Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons. Lavrov said his country wants to monitor Iran's nuclear program through the United Nations Security Council and the International Atomic Energy Agency, and he rejected the U.S. call for tougher sanctions on Tehran.

The U.S. also proposed adjustments to the Conventional Forces in Europe treaty, which limits key categories of conventional weapons and forces. Lavrov called the latest U.S. proposals nothing new, saying that although they're a step in the right direction, "this step is insufficient."

U.S. officials traveling with Rice and Gates rejected suggestions that the meeting was a failure, calling the agreement to discuss these issues again and to consider the U.S. proposals progress.

"I don't think we expected the Russians to agree with these proposals today," said a senior administration official, who spoke only on the condition of anonymity.

The U.S. also introduced specifics of a "Joint Regional Missile Defense Architecture," or missile defense cooperation, with their Russian counterparts, who agreed to consider the proposal. If embraced, the plan could take relations between the two countries "to quite a new level," the official said.

The Kremlin leader also said that the Cold War-INF treaty, which limits Russian and U.S. short- and medium-range missiles, was outdated because other nations are acquiring those weapons. Putin said it should be updated.

"If we are unable to make such a goal of making this treaty universal, then it will be difficult for us to keep within the framework of such a treaty, especially when other countries do have such weapons systems," Putin said.

12 October 2007
U.S. rejects Russian demand to freeze anti-missile shield
AFP

http://afp.google.com:80/article/ALeqM5hx_hwo0JK7R3LZ6VgM6WveguF_Dg


L-R: Condoleezza Rice, Sergey Lavrov and Anatoly Serdyukov	Vladimir Putin(2ndR), Sergey Lavrov(3rdR), Robert Gates(2ndL), Condoleezza Rice(3rdL) and William Burns(4thL) hold talks

MOSCOW (AFP) - The United States and Russia failed Friday to reach agreement on missile defence in talks that magnified their deep differences on a broad range
of strategic issues.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice rejected a Russian call to freeze plans for a US missile defense site in Eastern Europe despite a warning that Moscow would "neutralize" the threat of such a system.

Rice said "negotiations with our allies ... will continue" on deployment of the tracking radar and missile interceptors in the Czech Republic and Poland.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the project must be "frozen" and he warned that Moscow would "take measures to neutralise that threat" if it went ahead without taking into account its concerns.

"We would prefer to avoid such a scenario," he added. Rice and US Secretary of Defence Robert Gates also met President Vladimir Putin at his country home outside Moscow in a bid to defuse mounting tensions between the two countries.

But Putin set an uncompromising tone for the talks here, highlighting Russia's problems with missile defence, a Cold War-era treaty that limits troops and tanks in Europe, and a similar accord that abolished US and Russian short- and medium-range nuclear missiles in Europe.

Putin warned that that Moscow could not continue to abide by the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) agreement unless it is expanded beyond the United States and Russia to include other neighboring nations.

"If we are unable to (reach) such a goal of making this treaty universal, then it will be difficult for us to keep within the framework of such a treaty, especially when other countries do have such weapons systems," Putin said.

He said, in what seemed to be a sardonic quip, that the two countries might "sometime in the future decide that some anti-missile defence system should be established somewhere on the moon."

But before that happens, he said, they should not "lose the opportunity of fixing some particular arrangements between us."

Kremlin deputy spokesman Dmitry Peskov said afterwards that Putin's comment about the moon was not intended to be sardonic but rather to underscore that "we'll be ready to do whatever is necessary" to counter any clear threat.

Lavrov said the two sides agreed to add the INF treaty to a growing list of issues that will be taken up six months from now in Washington when the US secretaries meet their Russian counterparts again.

He said a US counter-proposal to ward off a Russian threat to suspend its participation in the Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) treaty on December 12 was a step in the right direction but not enough.

Washington describes the proposed missile shield as a limited system that could defend Europe against hypothetical future threats from Iran or North Korea. Gates said it "is not directed at Russia."

But Russia says its military capability would be blunted as a result and Putin warned earlier this year that he could order nuclear forces to target European cities if the deployment went ahead.

Gates said the US delegation "put some new ideas on the table," including ways to reassure the Russians that missile defence facilities in Eastern Europe pose no threat to its deterrent.

One idea was to deploy US and Russians at missile defence sites and radars in Europe, the United States and Russia, he said.

"We remain eager to be full and open partners with Russia on missile defence," he said. "If we succeed in working together it will mark a major strategic shift."

But Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said the proposed US site in Europe had "an anti-Russian character."

General Yevgeny Buzhinksy, who heads the Defence Ministry's department on international treaties, was defiant, saying Moscow would "not give any ground" on opposition to missile defence and its decision to abandon the CFE, state-run RIA Novosti news agency reported.

The two sides were also to raise Iran's nuclear programme, the status of Kosovo and proposals to renew the Cold War-era START strategic missile treaty.

"I know we don't always see eye to eye on every element of the solution to these issues," said Rice. "Nevertheless, I believe we will do this in a constructive spirit, that we will make progress during these talks and continue to pursue cooperation."

Adding to the sensitivity of the trip, which comes at a time of rancorous relations between an increasingly assertive Kremlin and a hawkish White House, Rice was to meet with human rights activists.

Domestic and foreign critics of Putin accuse him of dismantling post-Soviet democratic gains in the run-up to December parliamentary and March 2008 presidential elections.

12 October 2007
U.S., Russia no closer on missile defense
USA Today

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-10-12-us-russia_N.htm

MOSCOW (AP) - High-level talks Friday between the United States and Russia failed to bridge major differences over U.S. plans for a missile defense system in Europe and a range of strategic arms issues.

After a series of tense meetings that began with a blunt rebuff from Russian President Vladimir Putin, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates appeared in talks with their counterparts not to have turned around Moscow's opposition to such a system.

Rice and Gates brought several new detailed proposals to the table meant to ease Russian concerns that the missile defense system would be aimed at Moscow, but the pair was unable to convince Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov or Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov.

"We see two serious problems with these proposals," Lavrov told reporters at a four-way news conference. He said the two sides still disagree about the nature of the missile threat to Europe and that the Bush administration still refuses to freeze its deployment plans while the issue is discussed.

"There is no agreement on this," Lavrov said, adding that that while the initial U.S. plan to place elements of the system in Poland and the Czech Republic were small, they could grow to become a threat to Russia's deterrent force. "There is a potential threat for us here."

Serdyukov agreed.

"The principal thing to which we did not agree today is the deployment of anti-missile elements which have an anti-Russian character and which are to be placed in Europe," he said.

Rice said the ideas that she and Gates presented are "conceptual at this point" and would be handed to experts to consider further. The two sides plan to meet again in Washington in about six months, she said.

Gates said that one idea would be to have Russian personnel stationed at each missile defense site to improve coordination and openness with Moscow.

The atmosphere for the talks here already was tense before the principals sat down; Putin sternly warned his U.S. visitors to back off the missile defense plan or risk harming relations with Moscow.

Addressing Rice and Gates, the Russian president appeared to mock the proposal, which is at the center of a tangle of arms control and diplomatic disputes between the former Cold War adversaries.

"We may decide someday to put missile defense systems on the moon, but before we get to that we may lose a chance for agreement because of you implementing your own plans," Putin said in Russian, according to an Associated Press translation.

He also said that Russia might feel compelled to pull out of a 20-year-old arms control deal unless it is expanded.

Later, at the start of the meeting with Rice and Gates, Lavrov referred to the Americans having presented "detailed proposals" in the Putin talks to address U.S.-Russian differences on missile defense and arms control. He offered no details but said the Russian government is ready to seek compromise.

"We have differences and there is no need to hide them," Lavrov said.

But both he and Rice said the two countries were committed to bridging those gaps.

"I know that we don't always see eye-to-eye on every element of the solutions to these issues, nonetheless, I believe we will do this in a constructive spirit, that we will make progress during these talks as we continue to pursue cooperation," she said.

Washington describes the missile defense plan as a hedge against the threat of missile attack from Iran. Moscow sees the idea as a worrisome step toward weakening Russian security. It has been a long-standing dispute, and Putin's remarks seemed to raise the level of tensions.

Rice and Gates appeared taken aback at the firm tone and forcefulness of Putin's remarks, which were made from notes in the presence of American and Russian news media before they began a closed-door meeting around an oval table in an ornate conference room at his country house outside the capital.

"We will try to find ways to cooperate," Rice said in response. "Even though we have our differences, we have a great deal in common because that which unites us in trying to deal with the threats of terrorism, of proliferation, are much greater than the issues that divide us."

After Putin addressed further comments about U.S.-Russian military cooperation to Gates, the American defense secretary responded by saying the Pentagon was ready to intensify a dialogue on military relations.

"We have an ambitious agenda of security issues that concern both of us, including, as you suggest, development of missile systems by others in the neighborhood - I would say in particular, Iran," Gates said.

Gates did not directly comment on the missile defense dispute.

After keeping Rice and Gates waiting for 40 minutes, Putin began the session with a lengthy monologue in which he also said that Russia may feel compelled to abandon its obligations under a 1987 missile treaty with the United States if it is not expanded to constrain other missile-armed countries.

Referring to the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces treaty that was negotiated with the United States before the breakup of the Soviet Union, Putin said it must be applied to other countries, including those "located in our near vicinity." He did not mention any by name, but in response, Gates said Washington was interested in limiting missile proliferation in Iran.

Putin said the treaty must be made "universal in nature."

The pact eliminated the deployment of Soviet and American ballistic missiles of intermediate range and was a landmark step in arms control just two years before the fall of the Berlin Wall and later the breakup of the Soviet Union.

"We need to convince other (countries) to assume the same level of obligation as assumed by the Russian Federation and the United States," Putin said. "If we are unable to obtain such a goal ... it will be difficult for us to keep within the framework of the treaty in a situation where other countries do develop such weapon systems, and among those are countries located in our near vicinity."

Putin also has threatened to suspend Russian adherence to another arms control treaty, known as the Conventional Forces in Europe pact, which limits deployments of conventional military forces. Moscow wants it to be revised in ways that thus far have been unacceptable to U.S. and European signatories.

On missile defense, Putin was particularly pointed in his remarks, in which he sought to lay out his view of what Rice and Gates should be discussing with Lavrov and Serdyukov.

"We hope that in the process of such complex and multifaceted talks you will not be forcing forward your relations with the eastern European countries," the president said. He then made his remark about the possibility of one day putting a missile defense system on the moon.

Shortly before the talks with Putin began, Lavrov strolled into the house's billiards room, where American reporters had gathered, for a cigarette break. He was asked whether he expected any breakthroughs in the talks.

"Breaks, definitely. Through or down, I don't know," he said.

The Pentagon plans to install 10 missile interceptors in Poland, linked to a missile tracking radar in the Czech Republic. The Pentagon says the system will provide some protection in Europe and beyond for long-range missiles launched from Iran, but Russia believes the system is a step toward undermining the deterrent value of its nuclear arsenal.

Rice told reporters on Thursday on her flight to Moscow that the U.S. would go ahead with the program as planned.

"We've been very clear that we need the Czech and Polish sites," she said, although there's "considerable interest" in Russian ideas for cooperation such as sharing a Soviet-era tracking station in Azerbaijan.

"We're going to keep exploring ideas, we want to explore ideas," she said. "We are interested in other potential sites as well and we may be able to find ways to put that together."

12 October 2007
Russia may leave missile treaty: Putin
NOVO-OGARYOVO

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071012/ts_nm/usa_russia_treaty_dc_2

Russia (Reuters) - Russia will find it difficult to remain in a treaty on short and medium range missiles unless it is expanded to include other countries, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday.

"We need other international participants to assume the same obligations which have been assumed by the Russian Federation and the U.S."

"If we are unable to make such a goal of making this Treaty universal then it will be difficult for us to keep within the framework of such a Treaty."

Putin did not specify which treaty he was talking about, but he appeared to be referring to the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF). That treaty was signed in 1987 by former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan.

Russian military officials have in the past described the treaty as a Cold War relic.

Their objections to the treaty do not appear directed at the United States but are linked to concerns that states in the Middle East and Asia are building up their arsenals of intermediate-range missiles.
Russian officials say they are unable to respond to this build-up because of the restrictions imposed by the treaty.

In Brussels, a NATO official declined to comment on Putin's comments about the treaty.

12 October 2007
Putin: Russia wants medium-range missiles
By Adrian Blomfield in Moscow
Daily Telegraph

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/10/12/wputin112.xml

President Vladimir Putin has dealt a fresh blow to the West's security guarantees when he raised the possibility that Russia could build medium-range nuclear weapons capable of hitting Europe.

The Russian leader delivered his warning during a tetchy meeting with Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, and Robert Gates, the American defence secretary, who were in Moscow hoping to end an impasse over Washington's plans to erect an anti-missile shield on former Warsaw Pact territory.

But the Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov warned that Moscow would be forced to take measures to "neutralize" the shield if it is built as planned.

Mr Putin has already said that Russia would target its nuclear arsenal at Europe for the first time since the Cold War if the shield is not moved from its proposed locations in Poland and the Czech Republic.

In order to hit Europe, Russia could theoretically move its small stock of short-range missiles into the Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad.

But Moscow's capability of carrying out an effective nuclear strike on European soil is hampered by the Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty of 1987, which sought the elimination of medium-range nuclear missiles and paved the way for the end of the Cold
War.

Mr Putin has told his American guests that he could withdraw from the treaty although, as in the past, he said his concern was driven by the fact that the treaty only included the United States and Russia.

"We need to convince other countries to assume the same level of obligation as assumed by the Russian Federation and the United States," he said.

"If we are unable to obtain such a goal it will be difficult for us to keep within the framework of the treaty."

Analysts say that Russia's withdrawal from the INF treaty is all but inevitable and suggest that Moscow may already have built a new generation of the decommissioned Soviet-era PSD-10 Pioneer medium-range nuclear missile.

Mr Putin has already given statutory notice to pull out of another Cold War treaty, forbidding Russia from massing troops on Europe's border, by the end of the year.

With the United States concerned about China's nuclear expansion and Russia convinced that only its missiles can compensate for an ailing air force in its quest for resurgent military greatness, analysts suggest that neither country will fight to protect Cold War arms reduction treaties.

"Arms control will disappear in two years or less," said Pavel Felgenhauer, a leading Moscow based military analyst.

"The Americans don't believe in it any more and apparently the Kremlin doesn't either."

"The casualty will be the Europeans."

While the Pentagon may be prepared to let the INF treaty die, the chances of reconciliation over the missile shield dispute look slim.

Although Washington says the shield is meant to counter an Iranian missile strike, Moscow insists it is the true target.

The shield has an "anti-Russian character" defence minister Anatoly Serdyukov said.

The issue has infuriated the Kremlin, and Mr Putin pointedly kept his guests waiting for 40 minutes before his ministers flatly rejected a U.S. compromise proposal to allow Russian personnel to be stationed at the sites of the shield.

Analysts say that, despite its rhetoric, the Kremlin does not really believe that the shield poses a threat to Russia and secretly accepts that Iran is the genuine target.

Mr Putin, however, is incensed that the United States is deploying its military in the former Soviet Union's sphere of influence and failing to take into account Russia's economic, political and military resurgence. "The missile shield may not threaten Russia but it represents the first toe on the ground in the Warsaw Pact zone," said Mr Fengelhauer. "Russia worries that the boot will inevitably follow."

13 October 2007
Russia rejects plan, again
Putin spurns new proposal on missile defense system in Europe
By Peter Spiegel
Los Angeles Times

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nation/bal-te.russia13oct13,0,3458563.story

MOSCOW - Top Russian officials publicly rejected a new proposal personally presented by senior U.S. Cabinet secretaries, meant to convince Moscow to withdraw its objections to a missile defense system in Eastern Europe.

Moscow's rebuff yesterday was made both in substance and tone, with President Vladimir V. Putin coming close to openly ridiculing the anti-missile system and the Russian foreign minister saying the U.S. had failed to make a case that Europe faces a long-range missile threat from Iran.

Speaking at the start of a meeting with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates at his dacha on the outskirts of Moscow, Putin warned the Bush administration against attempting to assert its influence over Eastern Europe, saying it could irreparably harm U.S.-Russian relations.

"We can sometime in the future decide that some anti-missile system should be established somewhere on the moon, but before we reach such arrangements, we will lose the opportunity of fixing" other bilateral disagreements, Putin said.

Putin's spokesman said later that the president had not intended to be confrontational, and U.S. officials briefed on the Putin meeting insisted it was cordial.

But the talks appeared rife with diplomatic slights. Putin moved the meeting to his personal dacha from the Kremlin hours before it was to be held. It formally convened more than 40 minutes after Gates and Rice arrived at the appointed time, a delay that Putin ascribed to an emergency phone call.

Once it began, Putin unexpectedly proceeded to lecture Gates and Rice for several minutes before dozens of reporters.

Despite the visible tensions, U.S. officials said Sergey V. Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, had welcomed their new proposal to gain Russian assent by inviting Moscow to directly participate in some parts of the anti-missile system's operations.

Lavrov also sought further discussions between U.S. and Russian experts on whether the proposals met Moscow's concerns.

Rice sought to portray the unusually high-profile talks between the two defense ministers and two foreign ministers as constructive, and the first in a series that will begin to narrow differences between the two sides.

Despite Russian demands, however, she flatly asserted that the Bush administration would not freeze its talks with Poland and the Czech Republic on beginning construction of the missile defense sites. The Pentagon plan would put missile-tracking radar in the Czech Republic and 10 interceptor missiles in Poland.

The centerpiece of the new U.S. proposal presented yesterday is a program that would greatly expand the planned U.S. system by linking it directly with current Russian radars and, potentially, Moscow's existing missile defense system, which centers on protecting the Russian capital.

Although U.S. negotiators declined to give specific details, a senior Pentagon official involved in the talks said it includes allowing both Russian and U.S. personnel to staff the system's major components in order to give the Russian military assurance that it could not be converted to shoot down Russian nuclear missiles.

Russia has rejected similar data-sharing and joint headquarters proposals in the past, but U.S. officials insisted that the new plan went beyond what had been previously offered.

Peter Spiegel writes for the Los Angeles Times.