Putin sees dispute, Bush a ‘breakthrough’

President Bush and Russian President Vladimir V. Putin failed Sunday to overcome their greatest conflicts on a missile defense system the United States plans to build in Central Europe but narrowed difference over one key element.

The two presidents presented divergent assessments after spending nearly five hours together this weekend, with Bush expressing optimism that Russia was relaxing its opposition to the missile shield and Putin presenting a clear view of his objections and the obstacles in its way.

“It is a significant breakthrough,” said Bush, focusing on Russia’s willingness to work on the missile defense system in partnership with the U.S. and its European allies.

“It’s not going to happen immediately,” Bush said. “But is this a good opportunity to work together? You bet it is.”

But Russia continued to object to the central architecture of the system, which calls for installing radar in the Czech Republic linked to missile interceptors in Poland. The Russians favor the use of an existing Russian radar station in Azerbaijan, a former Soviet republic.

Putin, focusing on Bush’s insistence on pursuing the U.S. arrangement, said that a joint declaration issued enumerating progress by the two countries “does not provide any breakthrough solutions on a number of issues.”

Their difference about the weapon, Putin said, “is not about language; this is not about diplomatic phrasing or wording. This is about the substance of the issue.”

“I’d like to be very clear on this,” he said. “Our fundamental attitude to the American plans has not changed.”

Bush argues that the weapon system is needed to defend the United States and much of Europe against missiles that could be launched from Iran or elsewhere in the Middle East.

The two spoke at a joint news conference at a presidential vacation home in this Black Sea resort and host city of the 2014 Winter Olympics, where palm trees hug the shoreline and corniches, and snowcapped mountains hover just beyond the city.

With Putin stepping down May 7, the summit was almost certainly the final encounter between the two men as heads of state. It was the 22nd time they had met, apart from encounters at international gatherings.

Dmitry Medvedev, Putin’s elected successor, joined them at dinner and met separately with Bush. Medvedev has said he will name Putin as his prime minister on taking office in May.

Bush did not say Medvedev’s name, over which many non-Russian speakers have stumbled, when talking about him to reporters. “He seemed like a straightforward fellow, somebody who could tell you what’s on his mind.”

“My first impressions are very positive -- smart fellow,” he added.

Putin said in response to a question that in his new post he would shift his focus from foreign affairs, the president’s domain under the Russian Constitution, to economic and social policy. He said Medvedev would represent Russia at the meeting of the Group of 8 major industrialized nations in Japan in July.

He also spoke optimistically, but without elaboration, about the potential of a joint effort to develop a global missile defense shield.

In their declaration, the two sides say Russia continues to object to building the system in Poland and the Czech Republic, once members of the Cold War-era Warsaw Pact.

“Yet it appreciates the measures that the U.S. has proposed and declared that if agreed and implemented such measures will be important and useful in assuaging Russian concerns,” the document says.

Those measures could include placing Russian monitors at the Czech and Polish sites to track their operations, so “the Russians could see the radar is focused south, instead of east or north,” Stephen Hadley, Bush’s national security advisor, told reporters aboard Air Force One as the president flew to Washington.

Concerned that news reports had not focused on what the White House saw as a significant softening of Russian opposition, senior Bush aides spoke with reporters four times during the 10 1/2 -hour flight.

Hadley said the administration had sought two things: Russia’s agreement to work on a missile defense network with other European nations and the U.S., and agreement on the steps the United States had proposed to ease Moscow’s concern about whether the system was aimed at Russia.

“We got the agreement that we sought,” he said.

In the news conference, Bush said Czech and Polish leaders, whose assent would be needed to station Russian monitors at the sites, needed “to understand that Russia is not the enemy.”

The stop in Sochi was announced shortly before Bush began his European trip a week ago in Kiev, Ukraine. The travel was built around a North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit in Bucharest, Romania, and drew into focus the changes in Europe over the two decades since the end of the Cold War and new challenges facing the alliance. Bush also visited Croatia.

The two presidents projected a chummy air.

“I’m grateful to George,” Putin said at the news conference, citing improvements in U.S.-Russian relations.

“You’re not afraid to tell me what’s on your mind,” Bush said to Putin during a photo session that preceded their private session. “And when it’s all said and done, we can shake hands.”

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james.gerstenzang @latimes.com