As Russia prepared to host the world economic summit, the Bush administration is cooling its rhetoric on Russian President Vladimir Putin. Bush cited a “good friendship” with the Russian president, said he hoped to put the finishing touches on a deal to bring Russia into the World Trade Organization, and remarked that it was for others — not the United States — to say whether Russia was intent on blackmailing its neighbors on energy. “That's not an issue we worry about here at home. That's an issue that the European leaders are going to have to work through,” Bush said in an interview with foreign reporters ahead of this week's trip to Germany and to St. Petersburg, Russia. Bush leaves on Wednesday for Russia, where he will join leaders of the other Group of Eight industrialized nations for talks.
