Putin offers alternative missile-defense plan

KENNEBUNKPORT, Maine — Russian President Vladimir Putin sought anew Monday to bat down U.S. plans to build a missile defense shield in Eastern Europe, proposing that the system be expanded and largely Russian-based.

Neither President Bush nor his aides reacted definitively to the surprise idea, Putin's second in less than a month on the topic that has sent U.S.-Russian relations into a tailspin.

From Sunday afternoon through lunch on Monday, Bush used personal charms, his family's wealth and a slew of traditional Maine treats to woo Putin and heal fissures that have the Washington-Moscow alliance at its lowest point since the Cold War. There was lobster, blueberry pie and striper fishing in the Atlantic from his dad's prized speedboat — all from the spectacular setting of the century-old Bush summer compound on a craggy peninsula.

But with all Bush's efforts, it was Putin who appeared to leave Kennebunkport with the upper hand — a situation aptly, if coincidentally, illustrated by Putin's singular success among their group at outsmarting fish.

On substantive issues, the Russian leader appeared to neither lose ground or give any.

He emphasized more talking with Iran about its suspected nuclear weapons program over the tougher U.N. sanctions on Tehran that Bush wants. There was no sign that Putin came closer to the Western view that the Serbian province of Kosovo should be allowed independence. Most dramatically, Putin again showed up at a meeting with Bush with a proposal on missile defense that caught the president off guard.

As Putin said at the end of his appearance with Bush before reporters on the sun-drenched lawn of Walker's Point's main stone-and-shingle home: "We are here to play."

As a result, Putin traveled on to Guatemala for a decision meeting on the site for the 2014 Winter Olympics likely boosted in the eyes of the world by the respectful treatment and lavish compliments given him by the globe's only superpower.

There are many fissures in the Washington-Moscow relationship.

The anti-terror bond forged after the 2001 terrorist attacks has meant continued cooperation on fighting terrorism and weapons proliferation. But disputes quickly developed, from the Iraq war, the fate of democracy in Russia, NATO expansion and sniping over what each side views as meddling in former Soviet republics.