It was recently announced that U.S. President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold their first summit in mid-June. This is going to be a tense conference. The ghosts of the Cold War will arrive uninvited and bring a confrontational agenda with them. Both participants, having achieved a degree of notoriety, should be prepared for harsh treatment from the world's media.
The two leaders have a lot in common. Both were relatively unknown until two years ago. Both are aggressive leaders, not known for much tolerance and consideration. Both represent conservative trends within their respective societies: Bush stands for Big Money capitalism, Putin for Big Brother authoritarianism. Both have stained personal backgrounds: The reputation of Texas oil industry, which has nurtured the American president, is not much better than that of the KGB, which is the Russian president's alma mater. These similarities are likely to engender tough competition between the two: they are both asserting great-power policies, with little space reserved for humanistic values or the "global village" thinking.
The dissimilarities between Putin and Bush are bound to aggravate their rivalry and make it a very personal one. Bush is fully aware of his unflattering image overseas. His meetings with a number of foreign visitors in the course of the last three months were embarrassing. He demonstrated little interest in world politics and even less knowledge of it. The European press makes fun of the president's limited command of political and human geography. Even the U.S. press laments his unimpressive performance in the international arena. Under the pressure of all these domestic and foreign disappointments and criticisms, the American president will likely feel the need to demonstrate firmness and aggressiveness when meeting with Putin.