KIEV — President Bush arrived in Eastern Europe yesterday for a weeklong trip that his advisers said would highlight a U.S.-backed expansion of democracy across the region.
The trip will be punctuated by the final official meeting between a weakened Mr. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is leaving office next month but will remain a powerful figure in his nation.
Russia’s shadow will loom large throughout Mr. Bush’s trip, which is centered around a NATO summit Thursday and Friday in Bucharest, Romania.
National Security Adviser Stephen J. Hadley said yesterday that the president’s trip to Croatia later this week will “show that we are also bringing stability to the Balkans.” NATO is expected to admit Croatia into the alliance this week.
NATO’s steady growth has conformed with the vision of Mr. Bush and his predecessors of a Europe free from communism or autocratic rule, Mr. Hadley told reporters aboard Air Force One en route from Washington.
The entry of Croatia, Albania and Macedonia into NATO would represent “a capstone to a lot of American policy supported by Republicans and Democrats over the last 15 years,” Mr. Hadley said.
Mr. Bush said in a November 2002 speech in Romania that “Russia has nothing to fear from the growth of NATO, because Russia needs peaceful, stable neighbors.”
Mr. Putin and his hand-picked successor, President-elect Dmitry Medvedev, oppose the proposed NATO membership of Ukraine and Georgia. A major issue at the summit is whether to allow the two former Soviet republics to begin the membership process.
“Georgia’s accession into NATO will be seen here as an attempt to trigger a war in the Caucasus, and NATO membership for Ukraine will be interpreted as an effort to foment a conflict with Russia,” Sergei Markov, a Russian parliament member and Putin ally, told reporters.
Mr. Bush’s support of Ukraine’s entry into the membership action plan will be countered by Russian pressure on European powers to oppose it.
Germany appears to be “succumbing to Kremlin pressure” on the matter, said Janusz Bugajski, director of the New European Democracies Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Mr. Bush will meet with Mr. Putin on Sunday in the Russian resort town of Sochi to discuss NATO issues and the U.S.-backed missile defense system proposed for Eastern Europe, which Moscow also opposes.
Mr. Hadley has called the personal relationship between the U.S. and Russian presidents “complicated.”
After Mr. Medvedev takes office, Mr. Putin is expected to assume the title of prime minister and wield enormous influence over the government.
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