U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spent the day in Moscow yesterday. First she met with members of civic society, who optimistically assured her that things on the whole were fine in Russia, both in business and in politics. Then she and the Russian president agreed to “tone down the rhetoric” and not criticize each other as venomously as they had been doing lately. She did not solve any problems, but the main thing is that U.S. President George W. Bush and Russian president Vladimir Putin can meet next month and act like old friends.

Rice gave an in-depth interview to journalists traveling with her as soon as she landed in Moscow, while still on the airplane. She tried to smooth over the impression she made while appearing before the Senate last Thursday. Rice harshly criticized the “concentration of power in the Kremlin” before the senators, but she explained to the journalists that relations between Moscow and Washington were not at all as bad as they may seem at first glance. "I don't throw around terms like 'new Cold War'," Rice said. "It is a big, complicated relationship but it is not one that is anything like the implacable hostility.” She added that she was a specialist on the subject, and "The parallels just have no basis.”

Nor did Rice complete disavow her previous words. Russia is not the Soviet Union and U.S.-Russian relations are not U.S.-Soviet relations, she said, and Russia is a complex where colossal changes have taken place, and nothing changes overnight. But they would like to see the changes take place faster and for the better.

Rice's change in tone was clearly due to the fact that she not only had to argue in Moscow, but also to try to reach an agreement on a number of important subjects. First, she had to convince the Kremlin not to veto the UN Security Council resolution declaring Kosovo an independent state. In addition, she had to repeat that the missile defense system being developed in Poland and the Czech Republic is not intended for use against Russia.

Rice planned to explain to Russian authorities that it was not a good idea for Moscow to withdraw from the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe. She told journalists that the United States would like to ratify the treaty, but cannot until Russia fulfills all its obligations under it, that is, until Russia removes its troops from Transdniestria, Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

Rice's first talks in Moscow were with First Deputy Prime Minister Sergey Ivanov. Since the negotiations were expected to be difficult and disharmonious, they and all those following were closed. Even the traditional photo session and appearance before the press with the president were cancelled.

The most public meeting was between the secretary and representatives of Russian society yesterday morning, before her meeting with Putin. The meeting was obviously limited to the most moderate opposition to avoid irritating the Kremlin. Editor-in-chief of Nezavisimaya gazeta Konstantin Remchukov, deputy chairman of the Union of Right Forces political council Leonid Gozman and New Eurasia Fund president Andrey Kortunov, vice president of Renaissance Capital Igor Yurgens and program director of the Open Russia organization Irina Yasina were at a table at Spaso House, the residence of the U.S. ambassador, at 9:45 a.m. The American side was represented by Rice and U.S. Ambassador William Burns. The guests told Kommersant that they received their invitations to the meeting last Friday. A diplomatic source said that “such meetings with the public are normal practice for foreign ministers,” and the participants at the event at the embassy were chosen for their “variety.” “The secretary of state planned to meet with various groups of the population and interesting people who are open with their views were invited to the embassy,” the source said.

According to the guests, the meeting was held as a tea. Rice gave a short welcoming speech, saying once again that there is no Cold War between Russia and the U.S. She mentioned that she had been in Moscow in 1979, and that everything was different now. Then she asked her guests to say a few words. Yurgens spoke about business, Gozman about politics, Kortunov about education and Yasina about civil rights.

Yurgens summarized his speech for Kommersant as being about “the complex political element in Russian-American relations, by comparison with which the economic element is in good condition and shows promise.” Yurgens expressed hope that the situation would change after the elections. “It is hard to expect much improvement in political relations now,” he said. “There are too many claims against each other. But after the elections we will be able to evaluate where we are standing and where we are going. It would be nice to believe that the economic chapter in our relations will be written grammatically and in optimistic tones.” Yurgens optimistically puts his hope in the common interests of the two countries. “Russians buy assets in America, and Americans are direct portfolio investors in Russia. We do not experience the pressure of politicians, who react to conflicts large and small.”

Kortunov spoke of the absence of reasons for pessimism. “Both sides are guilty in their worsening relations, but we have many spheres for cooperation in the regions,” he said. He mentioned successful educational exchanges as an example. “I know that, at Stanford University, which you and I both graduated from,” he told Rice, “a delegation of Russian students studying information technology arrived not long ago. St. Petersburg University had to pay $600,000 for it. That shows that Russian educational institutions have gotten money and that fact inspires hope.”

Gozman shared his political views (many as they applied to the upcoming elections) with Kommersant that were the basis of his speech at the U.S. embassy. “The main ones won't be the presidential elections. They'll be predetermined by the current head of state. The parliamentary elections are the main ones. There are three positions there: whether United Russia retains control as it battles Just Russia, how national ideology will play out in the elections, and whether the Union of Right Forces overcomes the seven-percent barrier. I think that a country with a democratic faction and a country without one are completely different.”

Remchukov spoke about freedom of the press. “I told the secretary of state that, as the owner and editor-in-chief of a print media outlet, I had never encountered pressure from the authorities. Not during the purchase or when working there did a single call come in. That means that the authorities are obviously concentrating more on electronic media. I said that freedom of speech is guaranteed by private owners. The more of them there are, the greater the guarantee of objective discussion in society.”

Rice asked the owner of Nezavisimaya gazeta (“Independent Newspaper”) what Russians watch. “She admitted that she flipped through the Russian channels in her hotel room and saw games shows and court shows. I answered that serials have become the most popular in Russia. That is demonstrated by the fact that NTV moved the news from 10:00 to 10:45 p.m. and gave that expensive time slot to them. Ms. Rice reacted with interest.”

Yasina admitted to Kommersant that that she spoke of less happy topics: about Manana Aslamazyan and the police search of Internews and about Mikhail Khodorkovsky's lawyer Yury Shmidt, who is waiting for his client to arrive from Chita. That ruling was made a month ago. “I spoke about the stranglehold of propaganda and the five minutes of hate on Russian state TV. I recalled Orwell and his 1984. Condoleezza Rice nodded when I mentioned it, that is, she read it and remembered it,” Yasina said. Yasin was surprised by “the optimistic tone of the conversation of the men… They simply beamed optimism. The feeling arose that everything is fine in business, in education and in politics. Simply a country of popular democracy. I played the role of the fifth column.” Yasina said that she did not mention “attitudes toward the opposition outside the system” or the Marches of the Dissenters, which have caused so much criticism in the West. “I reached my opposition limit and expected other guests to do the same. That didn't happen,” she said.

The secretary of state's guests told Kommersant that their speeches were not completely toothless. “I think we have a mass of problems with democracy and freedoms,” Gozman told Kommersant. “But the people who talk about hopelessness are exaggerating. There is private property and individual freedoms. Those are good perspectives that make a return to the USSR impossible. Our conversation was intended to help the secretary of state get rid of stereotypes about Russia and see the situation more correctly.”

The conversation ended with international issues. Rice asked how Russia feels about the possibility of giving Kosovo independence. “We warned the U.S. against a unilateral resolution of the Kosovo question,” Remchukov said. “We said that it would irreversibly lead to a broad wave of anti-Americanism in Russian society and accusations of double standards. We said that the topic of unfriendly' states could become one of the main ways of earning political points in election campaigns.” Yasina added, “Everyone agreed that, after such an event, there would be little to keep Transdniestria, South Ossetia and Abkhazia from seceding from Moldova and Georgia.”

The culmination of the day was Rice's meeting with the Russian president at Novo-Ogarevo. Judging by the statement made by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, they went through the full list of fundamentally worrisome issues without finding a solution to any of them, since they offered mutually exclusive solutions. Rice expressed Washington's position on Kosovo again. Putin listened to her. “As for Kosovo, we agreed to try to find a resolution that would suit everyone but, unfortunately, we haven't found it yet,” Lavrov said.

Even without achieving concrete results, Rice suggested a timeout on the mutual harsh criticism to the Russian president. She suggested that the powerful surge in anti-Americanism by Russian politicians is clearly tied to the upcoming elections – authorities are trying to use it to mobilize the voters. “The American side emphasized that Russian-American relations cannot be made hostage to the election cycles of both countries. The president supported such an approach,” Lavrov said.

The decision by Rice and Putin to “tone down the rhetoric” in public and concentrate on specific issues is undoubtedly important, but predictable. Moscow and Washington have always tried to quarrel for appearance's sake and create the impression of constructive dialog in face-to-face meetings. That is particularly true of personal relations between Putin and U.S. President George W. Bush. There is a month left before they meet at the G8 summit in Germany, where the leaders will have to look like old friends. Rice thus achieved the minimum for the visit. But it is clear that Moscow and Washington may begin accusing each other of deadly sins again in July.

Mikhail Zygar, Yulia Taratuta