Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

Following Meeting Last Week, Russian President Putin Praises Bush, Jeers Both Countries' Intelligence Services

Aired June 19, 2001 - 09:32   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.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: President Bush's meeting last week with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, lasted some two hours. And afterward, President Putin had nothing but praise for the American leader.

Our Moscow bureau chief Jill Dougherty now has a look at the Russian president's take on Mr. Bush.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Vladimir Putin ended up spending more time with the journalists than he did with President Bush, nearly three hours of questions and answers in the Kremlin library on everything from missile defense to how being a former KGB intelligence officer helps him in his job as Russian president. He began with first impressions of George W. Bush.

VLADIMIR PUTIN, PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA: They told me President Bush is not a good listener, that he prefers to talk himself and gets nervous after five minutes, impatient for the other person to finish. But it was completely the opposite. The president turned out to be a very attentive listener.

DOUGHERTY: Mr. Putin was asked whether their conversation helped him to better understand Mr. Bush's plan to build a missile defense system and whether Russia would be willing to amend the ABM treaty.

PUTIN: Our specialists are going to discuss technical issues specifically, what is our understanding of the threat, what provisions of the ABM treaty help us in our efforts to counter further threats and what aspects will impede this effort. We don't yet have a common position on that.

DOUGHERTY: The ABM treaty, he said, can be amended. It's happened before. But he said it's still the linchpin of international security and Russia must first define the threat. Throughout the conversation, Vladimir Putin's grasp of details was on display, a trait he chalked up to his experience as a former KGB intelligence officer -- the ability to sort through large volumes of information to isolate the most important facts and make others feel you have something in common with them.

(on camera): But this former spy had some unexpected criticism for his fellow agents. Both U.S. and Russian intelligence services, he said, are doing their work badly, exploiting the information they collect in order to continue with their old practices, hurting the security, he said, of both countries.

Jill Dougherty, CNN, Moscow.

(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