Bush, Putin Start `Casual' Talks at Seaside Retreat.

"They are both now playing for history and legacy, and I really don't think that either of them want, as part of their legacy, a trashed U.S.-Russian relationship,'' said Andrew Kuchins, Russia and Eurasia program director at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

"Kennebunkport represents the last real opportunity for the two presidents to try to reverse this downward slide that has characterized U.S.-Russia relations in the past several years,'' said Steven Pifer, U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state with responsibility for Russia in 2001 to 2004 and now an adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Kennebunkport, the rarest of presidential invitations, shouldn't create "misconceptions'' that U.S.-Russia relations are better than ever, Zbigniew Brzezinski, a former National Security Adviser to Jimmy Carter, told Congress last week.

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