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Strategies & Market Trends : Booms, Busts, and Recoveries -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: RealMuLan who wrote (59107)	1/18/2005 3:15:56 PM
From: RealMuLan	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74559

You Go Your Way, and Let Us Go Ours By STEVEN LEE MYERS Published: January 16, 2005 OSCOW — What Russia wants from the United States, increasingly, is less and less. A much-touted "dialogue" on oil and gas that only two years ago was supposed to open the spigot to American consumers has languished instead, as Russia has turned to markets in China, Japan and India. President Vladimir V. Putin's handling of the prosecution of Yukos Oil, once the country's largest, most-Western-oriented producer, has exposed what can only be considered his indifference to American opinion on matters of transparency and the rule of law. Even in the war on terror, one area where Mr. Putin and President Bush have found common ground, the scope for cooperation appears to be shrinking, in large part because of concerns about American involvement within what Russia regards as its historical sphere of influence. Russia, for example, has withdrawn its support for an observation mission on its dangerous southern border with Georgia. The mission, run by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe with American help, has been credited with curbing the movements of Chechen separatists. But in New York last Thursday, Russia's Minister of Defense, Sergei B. Ivanov, said the presence of American forces in Georgia and in Central Asia was "a very sensitive issue for us." Russia has countered with a military buildup of its own in the region. Not too long ago, Russia seemed to value American respect. Mr. Putin is a proud leader of a proud nation that still considers itself a balance, if not a rival, to the world's only superpower. But judging by his brusque public remarks recently in response to a Houston bankruptcy court's actions in the Yukos case, the overturning of disputed presidential elections in neighboring Ukraine and other issues, Mr. Putin intends to reconstruct a strong Russia politically, economically and militarily, regardless of what Americans may think of his methods. Mr. Putin, it seems, does not seek respect from the United States as much as an end to what he views as American hectoring and meddling. Russia has its own interests, and Mr. Putin his own view of how to achieve them - and that doesn't give the new Bush administration a great deal of leverage when it wants something from Russia. nytimes.com