Unleashed

When Mr. Bush visited the Russian president’s dacha outside Moscow, Mr. Putin’s Labrador bounded out to greet them. Comparing his dog to Mr. Bush’s smaller Scottish terrier, Mr. Putin turned to Mr. Bush and said, “Bigger, tougher, stronger, faster, meaner — than Barney,” Mr. Bush’s dog. Mr. Bush’s aides say they take the tale as a mark of a friendship strengthened by a little needling. But Russian policy analysts said they heard a different message in the story when Mr. Putin told it to them.

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