Posted on 07/19/2018 6:26:09 PM PDT by EdnaMode
Vladimir Putin, wannabe cowboy and newly minted close buddy of President Bush, eagerly wanted to ride a horse in Texas, so he may have been disappointed to learn that Bush zips around his ranch in a Ford pickup.
That's what was awaiting the Putins as they landed at the Bush ranch outside Waco in midafternoon. The Bushes, in ranch gear and carrying umbrellas to shield their guests from the rain, met the casually attired Putins when they arrived by helicopter for an overnight and barbecue at the Bush home.
"The president brought the rain, for which we're always grateful in the state of Texas," Bush said, looking for a silver lining in the clouds. "I'm thrilled he's here. There is no better gift than rain."
Putin is the first foreign leader to visit the president's 1,600-acre Prairie Chapel Ranch. Bush said: "I want to show him some of my favorite spots."
The former KGB colonel who spent the better part of a career spying on the West has devoted the first two days of his first real U.S. tour applying for a membership card. In the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, he said it is time to build a "qualitatively new relationship" and bury the "dead weight" of the Cold War. He promised what the West wanted to hear on economic reform at home and political cooperation in Afghanistan, while skating around the major differences still dividing the two sides on missile defense.
"The question is whether the United States and Russia need each other," Putin said earlier today at Rice University in Houston. His answer was an unwavering yes. "We have to sense the pulse of history."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Like typing "Google" into Google.
Russia has more Muslim allies than we do. Especially because the former Soviet space includes Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan...but add to them Iran, Syria, Pakistan, Sudan, Libya, etc....
Russia also has more Muslims within their own borders.
Putin has said Russian Orthodoxy as more in common with Islam than with Roman Catholicism or Western Christianity.
In February,1995 a subsidiary of Gazprom made an investment of $4 million dollars in S I Diamond Technology of Houston, Texas.
Gower (S&B) started that company—he left way before that transaction. Gave Bush his first job.
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