January 30, 2000
Web posted at: 1:17 p.m. EST (1817 GMT)

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From staff and wire reports

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright plans to visit Moscow on Monday to sound out Russia's Acting President Vladimir Putin's views on nuclear arms control and the war in Chechnya.

But Albright will also be assessing the man who is most likely to become Russia's next president. Putin took office almost one month ago -- when Boris Yeltsin dramatically announced his retirement on December 31 -- and the March 26 presidential election is just around the corner.

"Secretary Albright's visit to Moscow this week will be the first chance for the U.S. to size up Mr. Putin in his new role as Russia's president, and could set the tone for a new U.S.-Russian relationship," said analyst Michael McFaul of the Carnegie Endowment for Peace.

"Because we don't know who Putin is, his first steps as president are going to have big, long-term consequences for how we view him," McFaul said. "Will we view him as a nationalist, KGB authoritarian, or will we view him as a Western, liberalizing force in Russia?"

Nuclear arms treaty a priority

At the top of the U.S. agenda in talks with Putin is arms control. Albright will discuss the likelihood of the Russian parliament's ratifying the START II nuclear arms reduction treaty, as the United States wants it to do.

"Putin has said he wants it (the treaty)," said McFaul. "He is looking for the right deal with the Americans. Now is the time to do that."

But some analysts say that Putin will want U.S. President Bill Clinton to put off a decision on amending the 1972 anti-ballistic missile treaty.

A substantial part of Putin's popularity among Russians is his vigorous support for the Russian campaign in Chechnya, a largely Muslim republic of Russia that has broken away from the federation and is seeking independence.

Russia fought an earlier war in Chechnya, from 1994-1996, that resulted in disastrous Russian casualties and the loss of control of the republic.

Russia began attacking Chechnya again in September, pursuing Chechen rebels after they twice invaded the republic of Dagestan. The popularity of the war among Russians was high as troops easily gained the lowlands of Chechnya, but the war has lately ground down into a protracted and bloody battle for the capital of Chechnya and rebel strongholds in the southern mountains.

The United States and many Western nations have condemned Russia's war for its impact on civilians, hundreds of thousands of whom have become refugees. But Putin's stongman image goes over well in his country.

"It seems to me that the administration wants to make sure that they have a constructive dialogue with Moscow," analyst Dimitri Simes of The Nixon Center said. "They want to be sure that they are on the right side of a new tough Russian president."

Russians' lives harder now

Albright spoke on Sunday of the hardships that she believes ordinary Russians are facing. In an address to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, she told government and business leaders that many ordinary people in Russia are having tougher lives now than when they lived under communism in the Soviet Union.

The same is true in other former Soviet republics, she said. "A majority of citizens in these countries have come to equate democracy with inequality, insecurity and the unraveling of the social fabric," Albright said.

Amid frustration and economic anxieties, she said, support is growing for "failed remedies" of the past, including protectionism and authoritarianism.

As a potential remedy, Albright proposed bringing these poorer countries -- in southeast Europe, Africa, southeast Asia and the Caucasus -- into the global economy.

State Department Correspondent Andrea Koppel and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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