A week from now, Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet U.S. President George Bush at the oceanfront summer retreat of the Bush family at Kennebunkport, Maine.

No specific agreements are scheduled to be unveiled at Kennebunkport. This is not accidental: the two presidents will find little substantive to agree on. They are meeting to vent their grievances and mask with a show of camaraderie the gaping void of differences.

Bush invited Putin to his family home in early June, when Moscow and Washington were engaged in a war of rhetoric that was doing considerable damage to the bilateral relationship. The intention was to change the tone and possibly make progress on a thorny issue or two - like Kosovo or U.S. missile defense in Eastern Europe.

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