Early in his presidential campaign, George W. Bush was on a four-mile run with a reporter when he began ruminating on the nature of Vladimir Putin, the former KGB lieutenant colonel who had become Russia's President. "Anyone who tells you they've figured Putin out," Bush said, "is just blowing smoke." Months later, on the eve of Bush's inauguration, his soon-to-be National Security Adviser, Condoleezza Rice, stood near a cocktail-party buffet table with a glass of white wine in her hand and predicted a gloomy future for U.S.-Russian relations. "There are a lot of bad things happening in Russia now," she said. "We don't have any reason to trust Putin." So much for history. This week, as Bush and Rice escape the din of post-Sept. 11 questions and recriminations and arrive in Moscow for what will be his first- ever visit to Russia, the President will hail the leader he once viewed with so much suspicion as a trusted friend-and Russia as a close American ally. He and Putin will sign a treaty committing both nations to slash their strategic nuclear arsenals from 6,000 warheads to a maximum of 2,200. Then the Russian President will give his American buddy a tour of St. Petersburg, Putin's hometown, reciprocating the hospitality Bush showed Putin at his Texas ranch last November. The following week they will be together again, this time in Rome, where they are expected to sign an agreement giving Russia a kind of junior partnership in NATO, the cold war military alliance created to confront the Soviet threat. Rice, who shares her boss's newfound optimism about Russia and its leader, fairly gushes when she describes the transformation. "To see the kind of relationship that Presidents Bush and Putin have developed and to see Russia firmly anchored in the West," she told TIME last week, "that's really a dream of 300 years, not just of the post-cold war era."
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机译：在总统竞选初期，乔治·W·布什（George W. Bush）与一名记者进行了四英里的奔跑，当时他开始对弗拉基米尔·普京（Vladimir Putin）的性质进行反省，弗拉基米尔·普京（Vladimir Putin）曾当过俄罗斯总统，后来成为俄罗斯总统。布什说：“任何告诉你他们已经弄清楚普京的人，都只是在吹烟。”几个月后，在布什就职前夕，他即将成为国家安全顾问的康多莉扎·赖斯（Condoleezza Rice）站在鸡尾酒会旁的自助餐桌旁，手里拿着一杯白葡萄酒，并预言美俄关系的前景一片黯淡。她说：“俄罗斯现在发生了很多坏事。” “我们没有任何理由相信普京。”历史太重要了。本周，随着布什和赖斯逃离9月后的喧嚣。 11个问题和谴责，然后抵达莫斯科，这将是他首次访问俄罗斯。总统将赞扬他曾经被视为可信赖的朋友而深信不疑的这位领导人-俄罗斯是美国的亲密盟友。他和普京将签署一项条约，承诺两国将其战略核武库从6000枚核弹头削减至最大2200枚。然后，俄罗斯总统将陪同美国好友参观普京的故乡圣彼得堡，以回馈布什在去年11月向普京在德克萨斯州牧场的招待。接下来的一周，他们将再次聚会，这次是在罗马，他们将在罗马签署一项协议，给予俄罗斯在北约的一种初级伙伴关系。北约是为应对苏联威胁而建立的冷战军事联盟。赖斯分享了老板对俄罗斯及其领导人的新发现的乐观态度，她在形容这种转变时相当激动。她上周对《时代周刊》说：“看到布什总统和普京总统之间发展的关系，并使俄罗斯牢牢地扎根于西方，那确实是300年的梦想，而不仅仅是后冷战时代。 ”
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