Amid Acrimony, Bush Meets Putin

Leaders Talk After Days Of Barbs About Democracy

(CBS/AP) 
That kind of blunt talk has added new strains to the relationship between Bush and Putin, reports CBS News Correspondent Bill Plante.

"This is not an issue of lecturing Russia," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told reporters on Air Force One. "It is that the United States and Russia have a deep and broad relationship. We'd like it to get deeper and broader. And the issue of common values and how Russia's democracy progresses is one of the issues on the agenda, an important issue on the agenda."

Rice took issue with Putin's assertion last month that the collapse of the Soviet Union was "the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century."

"I'm not going to try to second guess President Putin on this," Rice said. "I do know it was traumatic for many people to see the Soviet Union collapse. That's not surprising. Quite clearly the fall of the Soviet Union has led to some very good things including democracies throughout Eastern Europe and Central Europe and free Baltic states."

The United States has expressed repeated concern that Putin is quashing dissent and consolidating power.

Putin said in a CBS News' 60 Minutes interview to be aired Sunday that the United States should question its own democratic ways before looking for problems with Russia's.

The Russian leader also has rebuffed calls from Bush and others for an apology for the Soviet occupation of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

Bush on Monday will join Putin and dozens of world leaders at a Red Square parade celebrating the defeat of Nazi Germany. Bush has no scheduled public remarks during his 24-hour stay in Moscow.

Moscow has not disguised its unhappiness that Bush's four-nation trip was planned to bracket his stop in Russia with visits to two former Soviet republics, Latvia and Georgia.

A day before arriving in Moscow, Bush said in a speech that Putin should not fear the growth of democracy around Russia's borders and that "no good purpose is served by stirring up fears and exploiting old rivalries in this region."

Rice said Bush and Putin intended to cover a range of issues like Iran, Iraq, the broader Middle East and economic issues such as Russia's hopes of joining the World Trade Organization.

She said the United States has been encouraging Russia to sign border treaties with its former republics in the Baltics, without success.

"The future of Baltic and Russian relations should not be one of tension," Rice said. "And I think that's the message that the president will deliver." She acknowledged that the history has been "an unhappy and tragic one."