Russia's Putin seeks to mend fences with West

By Christian Lowe and Conor Sweeney

MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin plans to tell a NATO summit this week Russia wants to work with the West, not confront it, and bow out on a conciliatory note after an eight-year rule that has inspired talk of a new Cold War.

But Putin, who will be guest of honor at the summit in Bucharest, will deliver that message only if the alliance does not defy him first by using the summit to put the former Soviet republics of Ukraine and Georgia on the path to NATO membership.

"The very fact the president is going to Bucharest ... demonstrates Russia's constructive mood, its desire to continue dialogue," said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

But he added: "This willingness includes an expectation that our partners too will listen to Russia's opinion."

Former KGB spy Putin steps down in May. Since taking office he has reasserted Russia as a player on the world stage and clashed with the West over issues from the independence of Kosovo to a planned U.S. missile defense shield.

In a speech in Munich last year he accused the United States of trying to impose its will on the rest of the world. For veterans of Cold War diplomacy in the audience, Putin's strident tone revived memories of past confrontations.

The speech he is due to make in Bucharest will take a gentler approach, said Fyodr Lukyanov, editor of the journal Russia in Global Affairs.

"Putin is going to Bucharest to make a speech that is very important for him, which will be seen as his foreign policy legacy," said Lukyanov.

"He does not want to make Munich his foreign policy legacy. He wants it to be more constructive, maybe more philosophical, not a reaction to some actions or others of the West."

A tangible sign of Russia's desire to work with the West could come in the shape of a deal to let NATO fly over Russian territory to supply its operations in Afghanistan. Other Russian logistical support may also be on offer.

Unless the Ukraine and Georgia membership issue intervenes, that deal is "in the bag," said one Western diplomat.

BEACH-HEAD

Russia's approach to the summit will hinge on whether NATO grants Ukraine and Georgia a Membership Action Plan (MAP), the first step on the road to alliance membership.

Moscow views the two states as part of its traditional sphere of influence and says NATO membership will give the United States a beachhead to bring its weapons right up to Russia's southwestern flank.

If the alliance does give either Ukraine or Georgia a MAP, it will be "an open spit in the face to Russia," said Lukyanov. Diplomats say in that case Putin, due to attend a session of the Russia-NATO Council on the summit's final day, could stay away.