Description:

Bush George W. 1946 -

George W. Bush and Vladimir Putin signed dinner menu from the Bush family's Prairie Chapel Ranch in Texas, just after Bush's presidential victory.

One-sided dinner menu card, 5" x 7.25", dated "November 14, 2001", and boldly signed in black felt tip by both 43rd U.S. President George W. Bush (born 1946) and Russian President Vladimir Putin (born 1952). Fine condition. With significant provenance from the Ex Samuel Sutton Collection. Sutton was the personal valet to both George W. Bush and 44th U.S. President Barack Obama (born 1961).

This dinner menu, dating from shortly after George W. Bush was elected president, commemorated Putin's informal visit to Bush's ranch in Texas during the fall of 2001. Vladimir Putin fully embraced his role as a "wannabe" cowboy and the newly minted close buddy of President Bush. Putin may have been disappointed to learn that instead of riding bareback horses, Bush zips around his ranch in a Ford pickup. The Bushes invited the Putins for an overnight stay and barbecue at the Bush home. "The president brought the rain, for which we're always grateful in the state of Texas," Bush said, looking for a silver lining in the clouds. "I'm thrilled he's here. There is no better gift than rain."

Putin is the first foreign leader to visit the president's 1,600-acre Prairie Chapel Ranch. Bush said: "I want to show him some of my favorite spots." The former KGB colonel who spent the better part of a career spying on the West has devoted the first two days of his first real U.S. tour applying for a membership card. In the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Putin said it is time to build a "qualitatively new relationship" and bury the "dead weight" of the Cold War. He promised what the West wanted to hear on economic reform at home and political cooperation in Afghanistan, while skating around the major differences still dividing the two sides on missile defense. "The question is whether the United States and Russia need each other," Putin said at Rice University in Houston. His answer was an unwavering yes. "We have to sense the pulse of history."

Officials made clear that the principal goal is for the two leaders to continue building a personal relationship. "One of the most important objectives the president wants to accomplish by inviting President Putin to his home," Fleischer said, "is out of these small conversations, out of these informal settings comes a very strong way for leaders to develop powerful, good relations to build upon." For Putin, the trip also appears aimed at cementing his geopolitical shift to the West and convincing Americans that it is for real. Nowhere was that clearer than when he was asked in Houston about Russia's relationship with NATO during a question-and-answer session that followed his speech to the city's political and business leaders. In the past, the mere mention of the western alliance usually evoked protests about its creeping expansion toward Russia's borders. Today, it drew an enthusiastic proposal to include Moscow. "We are willing to do that," Putin said. "We are prepared to do that work. And now we are involved in intensive consultations about this, including with President Bush."

Bush administration officials acknowledged that the leaders devoted most of their White House meeting on Tuesday to Afghanistan and nuclear weapons. As they waited for Putin and his wife to arrive at Bush's ranch here, where the Russians will spend the night before departing for New York on Thursday, officials said the remaining sessions between the two leaders would allow more opportunity to talk about other issues of mutual concern, including Russia's efforts to join the World Trade Organization and its hopes of improved trade terms from Washington. Although officials said they anticipated more discussion aimed at reaching an elusive agreement on the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, no one expected a deal to be concluded. "I think time will tell," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said. "The president believes there have been very positive developments on that front," Fleischer said, but he did not cite any.

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