PRESIDENT BUSH faces the first test of his promise to spread freedom around the world this week when he meets President Putin of Russia amid growing concerns in the West that the Kremlin is backsliding on democracy.

However, Mr Bush made clear at the weekend that he will not criticise Mr Putin in public over the Kremlin’s control of national media, the abolition of direct elections for regional governors, or the break-up of the Yukos oil company. Instead, he will raise concerns about its increasingly autocratic ways in private, reasoning that his personal bond with Mr Putin is strong and that a public censure would backfire.

“Vladimir has made some decisions that I look forward to hearing, in a very private way . . . why he made the decisions he made,” Mr Bush said in an interview in the Russian daily Rossiiskaya Gazeta.

He said that it was important to be in a position “where you can be frank with someone. If you disagree with him, you tell him you disagree with him.”

When the two leaders first met in 2001, Mr Bush said famously that he had looked into the former KGB colonel’s eyes and found someone he could trust. Now, however, the US has growing concerns about Russia’s plans to sell anti- aircraft systems to Syria and to supply nuclear fuel to Iran. Washington considers both countries to be sponsors of terrorism. Mr Bush also is under pressure to take a harder line with Russia after his pledge to fight tyranny around the world, even among allies.

Richard Lugar, the Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, urged Mr Bush last week to “make democracy, human rights and the rule of law” priorities during his meeting with Mr Putin in Bratislava, Slovakia, on Thursday.

Joseph Biden, the committee’s top Democrat, asked bluntly: “When are we going to get tough with Russia?” The problem is that Mr Putin is in no mood to be lectured by Mr Bush about democracy after the United States-led invasion of Iraq and what the Kremlin saw as American interference in Ukraine’s presidential election last year.

“Democracy in Russia is officially not on the agenda,” Yuri Ushakov, Moscow’s Ambassador to Washington, said, “but I’m pretty sure the Russian President is not only ready to answer any questions but can also put some concerning US policy to his counterpart.”

When the two leaders met in Chile last November, Mr Bush sought to raise Russia’s rollback of democracy, but Mr Putin retaliated with a lengthy lecture on Russian history that left little time for further discussion.

The Kremlin argues that its efforts to reassert its control over politics, media and business are necessary to rebuild Russian power and defend it from Chechen terrorist attacks. America has fewer bargaining chips now that Russia — its foreign exchange reserves swollen by high oil prices — is less reliant on foreign aid.

Last week Republican Senate leaders urged Mr Bush to link Russia’s progress on democracy to its membership of international organisations such as the G8. Moscow’s response reflected a consensus that the US needs Russia, with its oil and gas reserves and support for the War on Terror, more than Russia needs the US. Konstantin Kosachyov, the leader of the Duma’s international affairs committee, said that without Russia other G8 members would be hard- pressed to combat terrorism and proliferation.

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