By Susan Cornwell
KIEV, April 1 (Reuters) - U.S. President Bush said on
Tuesday he was looking forward to his last official meeting with
Russian President Vladimir Putin in a few days, saying the
Kremlin chief had proved a strong leader and "I like him."
Bush, who like Putin is in the twilight of his presidency,
famously declared after his first encounter with the Russian
leader in 2001 that he trusted him after gaining a "sense of his
soul."
Critics later derided that statement as naive as Putin took
steps they said curbed democratic freedoms in Russia.
On Tuesday, Bush said nothing about trust, but defended his
policy of engaging Putin, saying it was important to the world
that the United States had a working relationship with Russia.
"This will be my last chance to visit with him face to
face," Bush, speaking alongside Ukrainian President Viktor
Yushchenko, said of his talks this weekend at the Kremlin
leader's Black Sea villa in the resort of Sochi.
The encounter will take place after both men attend the NATO
summit in the Romanian capital Bucharest.
"I've worked with him for eight years. We've had a very
interesting relationship. I like him. He's a person that, you
know, has been a strong leader for Russia."
Bush leaves office next January. Putin's protege, Dmitry
Medvedev, takes over in May as Russian president and Putin
becomes prime minister.
"My view all along has been that it's in our interests,
Ukrainian interests, European interests, to be able to have a
working relationship with Russia, and I've had that," Bush said.
"This will be a chance to say I appreciate being able to
work together and to be able to try to find some common
interests in the waning days of his presidency."
The visit to Sochi, which last year won the right to host
the 2014 Winter Olympics thanks largely to Putin's lobbying, is
aimed at repairing U.S.-Russian ties.
These have become strained over plans to deploy a U.S.
missile defence system in Europe, Western support for Kosovo's
declaration of independence from Serbia and the NATO ambitions
of ex-Soviet Ukraine and Georgia.
U.S. officials say Bush and Putin hope to agree on a
"strategic framework" of relations to bequeath to successors.
Bush said Tuesday he hoped for breakthroughs on the missile
shield that Russia sees as a threat.
But with Yushchenko seated at his side, Bush emphasised he
was contemplating no bargaining in terms of Ukraine's interests.
There would be no "tradeoffs", he said, with Putin between the
missile defence project and U.S. support for allowing the two
ex-Soviet states to start moves to join the NATO club.
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