THE US Secretary of State challenged President Putin over his democratic record yesterday, saying he held too much power in his own hands and should loosen his grip over the media.

Condoleezza Rice, on her first visit to Moscow as Washington’s most senior diplomat, also said that the Bush Administration would be closely watching the outcome of the trial of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the oil tycoon, who is due to be sentenced on April 27.

Her provocative and personal remarks highlighted the tensions that have grown between Russia and the United States since President Bush made the spread of democracy the cornerstone of American foreign policy.

However, in a telling sign of the political climate in Moscow, Dr Rice’s remarks went unnoticed by most people in Russia because the leading national television networks did not report them.

Speaking in a live interview with Ekho Moskvy radio before meeting Mr Putin, Dr Rice criticised the enormous personal power that he has accumulated since taking office in 2000.

“All that we are saying is that for the US-Russia relationship to really deepen and for Russia to gain its full potential, there needs to be democratic development,” she said.

“There should not be so much concentration of power just in the presidency, there needs to be an independent media . . . so that the Russian people can debate and decide together the democratic future of Russia.”

The Kremlin’s response was frosty, reflecting its own concerns about what it sees as American involvement in the Orange Revolution in Ukraine last year and the Rose Revolution in Georgia the year before.

Sergei Lavrov, the Foreign Minister, said that the issue of Mr Putin’s personal powers had not been on the formal agenda.

“The issue was not raised today,” Mr Lavrov said.

Nevertheless, he added: “We have given Condoleezza Rice additional information about the legislative grounds we create for developing democracy and market reform.”

Mr Bush is under mounting pressure in Washington to take a harder line with the Kremlin over its recent moves to ban direct elections for regional governors and renationalise the bulk of the huge Yukos oil company.

Mr Putin is also under pressure from domestic critics for tolerating Western support for a series of democratic revolutions in the former Soviet Union.

In a joint news briefing after talks with Dr Rice, Mr Lavrov said: “As much as the United States are interested in a strong and democratic Russia, we are interested in a strong and democratic United States that performs responsibly on the world stage.”

Dr Rice also clashed publicly with Sergei Ivanov, the Defence Minister, over whether American inspectors would be allowed access to Russian nuclear sites.

She said that she had discussed the issue with Mr Ivanov over dinner on Tuesday night and had won assurances of some improved access.

Yet Mr Ivanov said yesterday that Moscow was not even considering the possibility of American inspections.

“Visits by US inspectors to nuclear installations in Russia are not under consideration. This is not an issue,” Russian news agencies quoted him as saying.

Dr Rice, a former Soviet specialist, faced another awkward moment when she tried to switch to Russian during the Ekho Moskvy interview. Asked whether she might run for President, she answered, in Russian, “Da (Yes),” before realising her mistake and hastily adding “Nyet (No)” seven times.

When a schoolgirl listener asked how she had achieved her success, Dr Rice tried to answer in Russian, but soon faltered.

“You understand that it will be very difficult because I am out of practice, and in your language there are these awful cases,” Dr Rice told the girl.

“It’s very difficult for us, and it is very difficult to talk without making mistakes.”

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