Sunday, February 20, 2005; Page A01
The last time they sat down, President Bush politely asked President Vladimir Putin about Russia's retreat from democracy. Putin, according to U.S. officials, responded with a testy tirade on Russian history, filibustering for so long that Bush, left with an extended list of other issues to cover in a short private lunch, let the matter go without challenging the former KGB colonel.
Three months later, Bush will meet Putin again this week, and this time faces pressure not to let it go. The Bush-Putin summit in Slovakia, according to White House aides and outside critics, will be the first test of the grand promise laid out in the president's inauguration address last month to promote democracy abroad and confront "every ruler and every nation" about internal repression with the goal of "ending tyranny in our world."
Aides have carved out at least 2 1/2 hours in Bratislava on Thursday for the two to talk privately at length so the president would have enough time to get into a genuine exchange with his Russian counterpart about the rollback of democratic institutions and the elimination of political opposition. Some administration officials have been privately disappointed that the president has not been more forceful in the past, and worry that if he fails to take a tougher stance now, it will undermine the new Bush doctrine of putting freedom at the center of U.S. foreign relations.
"You couldn't have a bigger test -- it's incredibly important," said Jennifer Windsor, executive director of Freedom House, a U.S.-funded group that promotes liberty around the world and recently downgraded Russia to "not free" in its regular survey for the first time since 1989. "People will be judging what he says publicly and saying, 'Oh, we addressed this privately'; that's not going to be enough."
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A38363-2005Feb19.html
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