Jill Dougherty on Bush and Putin's meeting

Moscow Bureau Chief Dougherty

CNN Moscow Bureau Chief Jill Dougherty traveled to Ljubljana, Slovenia, where President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin had their first meeting.

Q: What fueled the meeting?

DOUGHERTY: One of the things that both leaders wanted to accomplish was to meet face-to-face and find out where the other person was coming from. And that appears to have happened very successfully.

Mr. Bush was full of praise for Mr. Putin, calling him a remarkable leader and a person who has the best welfare of his country at heart.

There was praise coming from Mr. Putin as well, with the Russian leader saying George W. Bush is a historian, interested in history and in the future relationship between their two countries.

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Mr. Putin also called it a very interesting meeting that exceeded his expectations. He also opened the door a bit to talking about the Antiballistic Missile Treaty.

Q: What is disputed over ABM treaty?

DOUGHERTY: The ABM treaty was signed by the Soviet Union and the United States in 1972.

The Bush administration has said it might walk away from the treaty. The Russians have been opposed to that.

The Russians really consider the treaty the cornerstone of security. They say that if you open up the ABM treaty, or walk away from it, it throws the entire security relationship between the United States and Russia up in the air. And they say that potentially they would have to walk away from 32 other agreements in the security arena because the cornerstone would fall out of that relationship. So they take it very seriously.

But on the other hand, Mr. Putin did seem to open the door a bit to more discussions on this issue.

Q: Did Russia benefit from meeting?

DOUGHERTY: Russia got some other things that it really wanted, including support for sending U.S. officials to support business investment. Russia desperately wants that. Russia receives very little money now from the United States in direct aid -- which dried up a long time ago. But what it does want and need is investment. And the Russians are undoubtedly very happy to hear that a high level of U.S. officials will be coming to Russia to discuss that possibility.

Q: Did Slovenia benefit from hosting the meeting?

DOUGHERTY: Slovenia really wants to become a member of NATO and they're hoping they will be accepted at the NATO meeting next year in 2002, where the expansion of NATO will be discussed.

President Bush gave Slovenia the indication that it is a likely candidate. And certainly that cheers Slovenians because that is precisely what they want.