Strictly from one's memory, George Bush said at a press conference in June 2001 that Vladimir Putin's soul was limpid when the Russian was looked in the eye. Recently someone irradiated the man whose name was Alexander Litvinenko and whose occupation, in the service of Moscow, was once espionage. It is one of several attempted and accomplished assassinations of which the Putin regime is inescapably suspect, so the 2001 remark is brought up every time a dissident falls down, if only because of the spiritual perspicacity that struck observers as bold and odd.
Litvinenko's death gives a cue to chortle at Bush. Looked into Putin's eyes and saw his soul! Ho-ho! As with most ridicule of the president, context must be ignored. At the time, Bush was one year from annulling the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, a treaty which, denuded ten years after Soviet collapse, was yet likened in its gravity to the Seventh Seal. He was also expanding the North Atlantic Treaty Organization over Russian demarcations. These were not the introductory diplomatic gestures of a naif.
What Bush said was in response to Putin's rhetorical question moments before: Can we trust Russia? "I will answer the question," Bush said. "I looked the man in the eye. I found him to be very straightforward and trustworthy. We had a very good dialogue. I was able to get a sense of his soul; a man deeply committed to his country and the best interests of his country. And I appreciated so very much the frank dialogue." The president's elocutionary skills are not great, but they are so depreciated that one might dismiss, wrongly, the possibility that Bush was speaking as diplomats do. This White House hasn't made many concessions to the Kremlin. Over five years, Bush's expressions of trust in Putin have always been subtly conditional, as if the president were admonishing the Russian autocrat: Come on, Vlad, you are better than that.