http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2006/06/02/putin_challenges_us_on_human_rights/NOVO-OGARYOVO, Russia --Russian President Vladimir Putin challenged the United States on Friday over human rights and NATO expansion but said the two nations are more partners than opponents.
Article Tools
In some of his warmest comments about the United States in months of sliding relations, Putin minimized disagreements between the two powers as "tactical" while asserting "the things that unite us are of a strategic character."
Putin said he was "satisfied with the level and quality" of U.S.-Russian relations. "In combatting terrorism, "we are more than partners," he told a group of media executives from the Group of Eight nations at a dinner at his suburban residence.
As a sign of Russia's strategic opposition to terrorism, he said, "In some areas terrorists thought we would feed terrorism as the United States did in Afghanistan against the Soviets and as the Soviet Union did in Vietnam against the Americans." But he said, "Our relations are so mature that we are not rolling back" on the Russian partnership with the United States.