Cross-posted at RussiaBlog.org
Bruce Chapman in Bloomberg's Moscow studio on May 15, 2007
MOSCOW - Two weeks ago, during Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's meetings at the Kremlin, Discovery Institute President Bruce Chapman was interviewed by Bloomberg's television news bureau in Russia for his reactions to the talks.
Chapman said that there are no substantive reasons for the two nations to be so negative towards each other and therefore Russia and the U.S. should "lower the temperature" of their rhetoric. Alone among commentators, Chapman also predicted that presidents Putin and Bush would meet face to face in the near future.
Former Ambassador Chapman apparently has influence in high places: the resulting communiqué from the Rice-Putin (and Foreign Minister Lavrov) talks emphasized the need to lower the rhetoric, and two weeks later a Putin-Bush summit due to take place in Kennebunkport, Maine was announced for early July.