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| The Alliance |
| Armitage in Russia |
| 2001-10-04 |
Richard L. Armitage flew through the night from Washington, landing in Moscow just after sunrise. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell's deputy and dearest friend headed for a government mansion, where he was closeted with his Russian counterpart, Vyacheslav Trubnikov, a senior deputy foreign minister and former head of the Kremlin's Foreign Intelligence Service. Just a week after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Armitage had been dispatched on a hastily arranged mission to ask for Russia's help in tracking down Saudi exile Osama bin Laden and his militant cadres and in mounting a military reprisal against them. But beyond the specific requests made during a full day of discussions that included midday talks over a buffet of traditional Russian meats and potato dishes, Armitage was posing a far more fundamental question: Were the two former Cold War adversaries prepared -- 12 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall -- to transform their still antagonistic relations? What the two men discussed that day, according to accounts by U.S. and Russian officials, led to one of the most intensive series of meetings, telephone conversations and back-channel communications between the two governments in many years. Emboldened by their united front against terrorism, the Bush and Putin administrations embarked on a course that could fundamentally recast U.S.-Russia relations. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |