WASHINGTON, Dec 8 (AFP) - Relations between Washington and Moscow have grown tense after Russian President Vladimir Putin slammed the West this week for its stance on Ukraine and Iraq, but the US administration has shown a desire to try to patch things up.
Speaking Monday during a visit to Ankara, the Russian president warned that Western attempts to influence Ukraine's presidential election -- whose runoff ballot is to be rerun on December 26 after an initial poll was deemed marred by fraud -- were discriminatory and used the promotion of democracy to infringe upon Russia's sphere of influence.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell told Russia to honor its commitments on democracy and troop withdrawals from former Soviet states, amid new rancor over Ukraine, at a conference of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Tuesday in Sofia.
Powell took Russia and its ally Belarus -- the only critics of Western intervention in Ukraine -- to task for "unfulfilled promises of democracy and respect for fundamental freedoms."
The acerbic exchanges strike a stark contrast with the warming relations between the two countries witnessed after the September 11, 2001 attacks, when they rallied together to fight terrorism.
Putin and US President George W. Bush also built a personal friendship during that time. In June 2001, after meeting with his Russian counterpart, Bush said he looked Putin in the eye and "found him to be very straightforward and trustworthy." Putin also openly supported Bush's re-election bid in November of this year.
To some experts, the current climate is a harbinger for a return to lukewarm relations, primarily because of Putin's recent authoritative leanings, which have been observed with some concern in Washington.
"The statement the president made in 2001 was totally unrealistic. Putin is Putin, and those statements about what a wonderful guy he is were just unfortunate," said James Goldgeier, a Russia expert at the George Washington University and the Council on Foreign Relations.
"US-Russian relations have been on a pretty modest course for some years now. There's really not a lot of substance in the relationship the way there was in the 1990s," with the fall of the Soviet empire, "and there aren't that many issues in which the US and Russia have a lot of business to do with one another," he said.
Goldgeier said the best thing Washington can do is to not overreact to Putin's remarks.
"Putin is doing a good job all by himself in embarrassing himself, so I don't think there is a need for the US to add to that," he said.
The US State Department sought to limit the focus on Putin's remarks, emphasizing that relations between Moscow and Washington are "outstanding."
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also sought to minimize the differences between Washington and Moscow on Ukraine, saying: "Things are never entirely smooth. ... There are problems in relations between two states with wide interests in the world, especially Russia and the United States. But we have reached such a level of partnership that these problems can be discussed openly and we try to find solutions suitable to both sides and, most importantly, that enhance stability and the principle of collective action in world politics."
Still, some US officials say that, for all of Putin's bluster, it is still possible to alter Russia's stance through private talks, particularly on Ukraine.
"What we are trying to do with Moscow is to get them to be part of this cooperative international effort to help Ukraine," a State Department official said on condition of anonymity.
"The colorful metaphor is to get them on the inside of the tent pissing out as opposed to outside of the tent pissing in," the official said.
Russia was one of the most outspoken opponents to the US-led war in Iraq.
OSCE monitors also documented widespread fraud in last month's polls in Ukraine, which were won by pro-Russian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich, whom Moscow openly supported, but were challenged by pro-Western opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko.
The vote was annulled and a repeat election is to be held December 26.
Washington has been increasingly troubled by recent developments in Russia, including Putin's centralization of power, the controversial prosecution of the Yukos oil case and a clampdown on independent media.
Last month, Bush expressed those concerns directly to Putin for the first time at a meeting in Chile.

12/08/2004 18:58 GMT - AFP