Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Bush walk to a press conference Sunday at Bocharov Ruchei, the presidential vacation residence in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi, Russia. With time running out on an often testy seven-year relationship, the leaders remained far apart over a U.S. missile defense system but agreed that the nations' dialogue would continue.

Sochi, Russia ? President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin failed to overcome sharp differences over a U.S. missile defense system, closing their seven-year relationship Sunday still far apart on an issue that has separated them from the beginning.

“Our fundamental attitude toward the American plan has not changed,” Putin said at a news conference with Bush at his vacation house at this Black Sea resort. “Obviously we’ve got a lot of work to do,” Bush said. Despite the impasse, the two leaders agreed that Moscow and Washington would work together closely in the future on missile defense and other difficult issues.

Putin declared there were no breakthrough solutions but said “certain progress is obvious” in the long-running dispute on missile defenses. He was referring to U.S. concessions to assuage Russia’s concerns. U.S. officials said that was what they wanted to hear him say.

Bush and Medvedev

Bush also conferred with Putin’s hand-picked successor, Dmitry Medvedev, but did not claim gaining any insight into his soul, as he had with Putin upon their first encounter. He pronounced Putin’s protege “a straightforward fellow” and said he was eager to work with him.

Putin was asked whether he – or Medvedev, the president-elect – would be in charge of Russia’s foreign policy after May 7, when Putin steps down as president and is expected to be named prime minister.

Putin said Medvedev would be in charge, and would represent Russia at the Group of Eight meeting of industrial democracies in July in Tokyo. “Mr. Medvedev has been one of the co-authors of Russia’s foreign policy,” Putin said. “He’s completely on top of things.”

National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley, when asked later whether he thought Putin actually was going to cede authority on Russian foreign policy to Medvedev, said: “My guess is that these two men who have worked very closely together for now almost two decades will have a very collaborative relationship. That seems to be a good thing, not a bad thing.”

Hadley, who spoke with reporters aboard Air Force One on the way home to Washington, also said he didn’t see any prospect of a breakthrough on missile defense before Bush leaves office next January. “They can leave that to their prospective successors,” he said.

Disagreements

At their 28th and final meeting as heads of state, Bush and Putin sought to emphasize their good personal relations, praising each other extensively. But they also both acknowledged remaining strong disagreements, principally missile defense and NATO’s eastward expansion.

Russia remains adamantly opposed to the expansion of the alliance into its backyard, an enlargement that Bush has actively championed over Putin’s vocal objections.

The Sochi meeting came just days after NATO leaders agreed at a summit in Romania to invite Albania and Croatia to join the alliance. However, the alliance rebuffed U.S. attempts to begin the process of inviting Ukraine and Georgia, both former Soviet republics, to join, although their eventual admission seems likely.

Putin called the U.S. missile plan – which envisions basing tracking radar sites in the Czech Republic and interceptors in Poland – the hardest of U.S.-Russian differences to reconcile. “This is not about language. This is not about diplomatic phrasing or wording. This is about the substance of the issue,” he said.

Defense plan not a threat

Bush reiterated his insistence that the plan – designed to intercept and destroy approaching ballistic missiles at high altitudes – should not be viewed as a threat to Russia. In a clear reference to Iran, he said the system would help protect Europe from “regimes that could try to hold us hostage.”

“I view this as defensive, not offense,” Bush said. “And, obviously, we’ve got a lot of work to convince the experts this defense system is not aimed at Russia.”

Bush and Putin did issue a joint statement on missile defense as part of a “strategic framework” to guide future relations between Washington and Moscow.

The statement outlined timeworn U.S. and Russian positions but also held out the prospect for future cooperation, perhaps on a joint system. That, said Putin, represents “certain progress.”