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 KENNEBUNKPORT, Maine (AP) - Russian President Vladimir Putin sought anew Monday to bat down U.S. plans to build a missile defense shield in Eastern Europe, proposing that the system be expanded and largely Russian-based.
Neither President Bush nor his aides reacted definitively to the surprise idea, Putin's second in less than a month on the topic that has sent U.S.-Russian relations into a tailspin.
From Sunday afternoon through lunch on Monday, Bush used personal charms, his family's wealth and a slew of traditional Maine treats to woo Putin and heal fissures that have the Washington-Moscow alliance at its lowest point since the Cold War. There was lobster, blueberry pie and striper fishing in the Atlantic from his dad's prized speedboat — all from the spectacular setting of the century-old Bush summer compound on a craggy peninsula.
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