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U.S. President George W. Bush had emerged from previous summits with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to tell journalists that he had "looked the man in the eye. I was able to get a sense of his soul." Putin was a "good friend" and a "guy" with whom one could have a good time. In September 2003, he had even, famously, said "I love him, believe it or not."
But their summit in February 2005, the eleventh meeting between the two presidents, was expected to mark the end of the love affair. The agenda for the meeting in the Slovak capital Bratislava featured a raft of other topics where Washington and Moscow differed, issues such as the state of Russian democracy and Russia's involvement in Iran's nuclear program. But, most sensitively, the summit came just weeks after Ukraine's Orange Revolution, which had left the Kremlin smarting from a huge geopolitical defeat and a huge, failed financial gamble on the election, and also fearful that Russians might, like Ukrainians, come out onto the streets to call for political change.
In the event, analysts were divided on exactly how warm or cool the summit left U.S.-Russian relations. Most, though, agreed that it was a cooler affair than previous summits between the two leaders.
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