Bush avoids public spat with Putin

By Caren Bohan

ST PETERSBURG, Russia (Reuters) – President Bush backed
away on Saturday from a public confrontation over Russia’s
democracy with President Vladimir Putin, adhering to a pledge
not to lecture the Kremlin leader.

At a joint news conference, the two made clear they
discussed their differences privately on what critics say are
declining civil liberties in Russia, and stepped gingerly
around the issue in their public comments.

With Bush needing Russia’s help on pressuring Iran and
North Korea to forswear nuclear weapons, and with Middle East
violence surging, democracy issues did not appear to play as
dominating role in their talks as when they met in Slovakia
last year.

Bush said it came up at their social dinner on Friday
night.

“I talked about my desire to promote institutional change
in parts of the world like Iraq, where there is a free press
and free religion, and I told him that a lot of people in our
country, you know, would hope that Russia would do the same
thing,” Bush said.

He quickly added: “I totally understand, however, that
there will be a Russian-style democracy. I don’t expect Russia
to look like the United States. As Vladimir pointedly reminded
me last night, ‘We have a different history, different
traditions.”‘

Putin pounced on the reference to Iraq. “We of course don’t
want to have a democracy like the one in Iraq, to be honest,”
he deadpanned, to laughter from Russian-speaking listeners.

Upon hearing the translation of Putin’s remark, Bush
interjected: “Just wait.”

Russian non-governmental organizations say their ability to
operate free from state interference has been drastically
curtailed by a Kremlin-sponsored law passed this year.
Washington has joined criticism of the law.

Masha Lipman, editor of the Carnegie Moscow Center’s Pro et
Contra journal, wrote in The Washington Post on Saturday that
“the Russian government has resorted recently to police
practices strongly reminiscent of those used some three decades
ago in the Soviet Union.”

Bush met a number of Russian rights campaigners on Friday
and said he would relay their concerns about curbs on civil
liberties to Putin.

“Look, he’s willing to listen, but he also explains to me
that he doesn’t want anyone telling him how to run his
government,” Bush said on Saturday.

Putin said: “Nobody knows better than us how to strengthen
our own state. We know very well that we cannot strengthen it
without developing democracy. And of course we will do this. We
will do it independently.”

Ahead of Bush’s talks, the U.S. Senate unanimously adopted
a resolution that called on Bush and other G8 countries “to let
President Putin know that his attempts to turn back the clock
on democracy are unacceptable.”