SANTIAGO (AFP) - US President George W. Bush told Russian President Vladimir Putin in person for the first time that he worried about "overcentralization of power" in the Kremlin, said a senior US official.
"The president raised this, noted the concerns that we've had about checks and balances, about the centralization of power inside Russia, and asked Putin to give his own explanation of what was going on and why these steps were being taken inside Russia," the official told reporters on condition of anonymity.
The official, speaking after the leaders met on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit here, said Putin "went back deep into Russian history, the Stalinist period" in his response.
He said that he was trying "to develop a democratic style of government that was consistent with Russian history and the unique problems that Russia faced as a multiethnic society on a large land mass," the US official said.
Putin has drawn fire from Western governments and rights groups for what they say are increasingly authoritarian measures, including scrapping direct elections for regional governors and deputies to the lower house of parliament.
Under Putin's system, which is nearly identical to the one practiced in the Soviet era, Russians will directly choose only their president and local officials.
"There was a lot of back-and-forth, the president asking questions, underscoring his concerns and wanting to know exactly how this would move forward to, or help develop a democratic Russia," the US official said.
Bush reiterated "his concern about checks and balances within the Russian system and the overcentralization of power," the US official said.
"We've laid the basis for further discussions of this as we move forward. And, as I said, I think it was a very open and frank discussion of the nature of the issues facing the Russian state," the official said.
A senior Russian official had a slightly different view, saying that Putin, not Bush, had raised the issue "at his own initiative," telling the US president about the steps he had taken.
Critics charge that Moscow's help in the global war on terrorism has led Bush to essentially look the other way while Putin has centralized power and pursued a bloody campaign in the breakaway province of Chechnya.
Another senior US administration official said that Bush had made similar comments publicly and expressed some of his concerns by telephone to Putin, but that this was the first time he had done so in person.
Bush has had close ties with Putin ever since he declared in June 2001: "I looked the man in the eye. I found him to be very straightforward and trustworthy. We had a very good dialogue. I was able to get a sense of his soul."
And Putin was among a handful of world leaders who openly expressed the hope that Bush would win a second four-year term in the November 2 elections pitting him against Democratic Senator John Kerry, who was openly critical of Russia.
In their first debate, Bush and Kerry had each said relations with Moscow were important, but the Democrat had much more forceful criticisms of Putin's style of governing.
"Mr. Putin now controls all the television stations. His political opposition is being put in jail," he said. "This is a very important country to us. We want a partnership, but we always have to stand up for democracy."
11/21/2004 - 07:51 GMT - AFP