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Russian President Critiques American Policy

Aired November 22, 2002 - 14:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: We begin this hour in the vast Russian palace, where Russian President Putin today found considerable room for improvement in President Bush's priorities. With Mr. Bush at his side, Mr. Putin recommended his visitor think more about finding Osama bin Laden, than about invading Iraq.
CNN's John King reports from St. Petersburg.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN KING, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At Catherine's Palace, a walk down the golden corridor with a man President Bush calls his good friend, Vladimir. A quick visit to compare notes on Iraq, and to promise NATO's expansion to Russia's border is anything but a threat.

After the talks, Mr. Bush's first comment of the arrest of Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, al Qaeda's Persian Gulf operations chief:

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We did bring to justice a killer, and the message is, we're making war on the -- or we're making progress on the war against terrorists, that we're going to hunt them down one at a time.

KING: A new joint U.S.-Russia statement demands Iraq cooperate fully and unconditionally in its disarmament obligations or face serious consequences.

But Russia says Washington has too low a threshold for war with Iraq, and that there are higher priorities in the war on terror, like finding Osama bin Laden. Mr. Putin gave no indication 90 minutes with Mr. Bush had changed that view.

PRES. VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIA (through translator): We do believe that we have to stay within the framework of the work being carried out by the Security Council of the United Nations.

KING: Mr. Bush came to St. Petersburg from the NATO summit in Prague, where seven Eastern European nations were invited to join the alliance. Three of them -- Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia -- are on Russia's doorstep. President Putin did not object, and says he will work with NATO. But he also wants assurances the alliance will limit troop deployments so close to his borders.

BUSH: The mood of the NATO countries is this: Russia is our friend. We've got a lot of interests together.

KING: This was the eighth Bush-Putin meeting in just 17 months, and Mr. Bush is due back in Russia in May.

(on camera): The president concludes this trip with stops in Lithuania and Romania, two of the seven former Soviet bloc countries just invited to join the NATO alliance. In both nations, suspicions of Moscow still linger, and Mr. Bush will make the case that global terrorism, not Russia, is today's true threat.

John King, CNN, St. Petersburg.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.






Aired November 22, 2002 - 14:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: We begin this hour in the vast Russian palace, where Russian President Putin today found considerable room for improvement in President Bush's priorities. With Mr. Bush at his side, Mr. Putin recommended his visitor think more about finding Osama bin Laden, than about invading Iraq.
CNN's John King reports from St. Petersburg.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN KING, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At Catherine's Palace, a walk down the golden corridor with a man President Bush calls his good friend, Vladimir. A quick visit to compare notes on Iraq, and to promise NATO's expansion to Russia's border is anything but a threat.

After the talks, Mr. Bush's first comment of the arrest of Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, al Qaeda's Persian Gulf operations chief:

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We did bring to justice a killer, and the message is, we're making war on the -- or we're making progress on the war against terrorists, that we're going to hunt them down one at a time.

KING: A new joint U.S.-Russia statement demands Iraq cooperate fully and unconditionally in its disarmament obligations or face serious consequences.

But Russia says Washington has too low a threshold for war with Iraq, and that there are higher priorities in the war on terror, like finding Osama bin Laden. Mr. Putin gave no indication 90 minutes with Mr. Bush had changed that view.

PRES. VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIA (through translator): We do believe that we have to stay within the framework of the work being carried out by the Security Council of the United Nations.

KING: Mr. Bush came to St. Petersburg from the NATO summit in Prague, where seven Eastern European nations were invited to join the alliance. Three of them -- Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia -- are on Russia's doorstep. President Putin did not object, and says he will work with NATO. But he also wants assurances the alliance will limit troop deployments so close to his borders.

BUSH: The mood of the NATO countries is this: Russia is our friend. We've got a lot of interests together.

KING: This was the eighth Bush-Putin meeting in just 17 months, and Mr. Bush is due back in Russia in May.

(on camera): The president concludes this trip with stops in Lithuania and Romania, two of the seven former Soviet bloc countries just invited to join the NATO alliance. In both nations, suspicions of Moscow still linger, and Mr. Bush will make the case that global terrorism, not Russia, is today's true threat.

John King, CNN, St. Petersburg.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.