Published: July 08, 2008 07:00 am         

Medvedev: No progress with US after Bush meeting

TOYAKO, Japan (AP) — Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Tuesday that his meeting with President Bush at a summit of the Group of Eight industrial powers resulted in no progress toward bridging deep disagreements between the former Cold War foes.

Deeply wary of creeping Western clout in former Soviet republics and satellite states, Russia adamantly opposes the Bush administration’s plans to deploy missile defense installations in Central Europe and its backing of Georgia and Ukraine in their push to join NATO.

While some of the two countries’ interests coincide, “there is no particular progress” on the differences, Medvedev said. “We continue to exchange opinions.”

Medvedev said Russia wants good relations with Bush’s successor in the White House, and that he and Bush agreed the U.S. election campaign should not disrupt their ties.

“We expressed our mutual opinion that under no conditions should we allow a pause in the relations,” Medvedev said. He said that “irrespective of who wins in the elections, we are interested in normal, comprehensive and constructive relations with the U.S. administration.”

Medvedev met with Bush on Monday on the sidelines of a G-8 summit that was the new Russian president’s first and the outgoing U.S. leader’s last.

Medvedev has pledged continuity in Russia’s foreign policy but has tended to assert Moscow’s position in less confrontational language than Putin.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was expected to sign an agreement Tuesday to build a radar installation for the missile shield in the Czech Republic. The United States also is in talks to build a missile installation in Poland.

Russia says it is not convinced by U.S. insistence that the shield is meant to neutralize a potential Iranian threat and suspects the true aim is to weaken Russia.

A Russian official involved in the talks at the G-8 summit said Moscow opposes imposing financial or other sanctions on Zimbabwe over President Robert Mugabe’s widely condemned re-election last month. Alexander Pankin, a deputy Foreign Ministry department chief, suggested that Russia, a veto-wielding permanent U.N. Security Council member, believes sanctions might spark further unrest.

He said Russia advocates “broad negotiation” involving African leaders.

“It’s important to maintain peace and stability in Zimbabwe, and not to trigger a situation which would be unstoppable or could unfold in a very negative way.”

Bush had called Mugabe’s re-election a sham but failed to achieve a consensus among African leaders on sanctions against Mugabe’s government.

Mugabe claimed victory after his opponent withdrew from the presidential runoff amid reports of state-sponsored violence against opposition supporters.

Medvedev also met British Prime Minister Gordon Brown for the first time Monday, but their talks also brought no apparent progress on several disputes.

“It was a rather long-awaited meeting,” Medvedev said. “It did not go badly. We discussed existing problems, prospects.”

Some Russian analysts suspect the popular Putin’s choice of the 42-year-old former lawyer and law teacher as a successor, rather than a more hawkish figure, was aimed at easing tension with the West without giving ground on major issues.

Putin, barred from seeking a third straight term, ensured Medvedev’s election in March by singling him out as his favored successor. Putin moved to the prime minister’s post and now leads Russia’s dominant political party, raising questions about who holds the reins.