Official website of the President of Russia

News   /

President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President George W. Bush are holding an informal meeting over dinner.

The dinner is taking place at Lindstrem’s Dacha, a villa that is part of the Palace of Congresses.

Mr Putin and his wife Lyudmila arrived at the villa in an electric car and went up onto the porch to wait for their American guests. Mr Bush and his wife Laura arrived in another electric car a few minutes later.

The two Presidents greeted each other, giving each other a friendly hug, and then greeted each other’s wife. Mr Putin presented Laura Bush with a bouquet of flowers.

Mr Putin had a surprise prepared for his U.S. counterpart. A year ago, he showed Mr Bush his car, a rare Volga GAZ-21 model. This time, Mr Putin showed Mr Bush his first car, a Zaporozhets now more than thirty years old.

The two leaders and their wives then went into the villa and reappeared on the porch a few minutes later where they answered several questions from journalists waiting outside, including about the car that Mr Putin showed the U.S. President. After enjoying the view for a while, the Presidents went back inside and the dinner began.

The negotiations were not full-scale, however, during dinner the heads of state touched on various issues concerning the development of the world economy and both countries` national economies. The family dinner between American and Russian presidents took place in an extremely warm and open atmosphere.

Official Russian-U.S. talks will take place on Saturday morning.