WASHINGTON, July 7: President George Bush, whose administration has criticised anti-democratic moves in Russia, said on Thursday he hopes for candid talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin next week but will not lecture him.

Ahead of the mid-July summit of the Group of Eight industrialised nations that Russia is hosting in St. Petersburg, Bush was asked in an interview with CNN talk show host Larry King if he still had a strong rapport with Putin.

“I do like him,” Bush said. “I don’t necessarily agree with every decision he’s made about what’s happening inside of Russia, but it’s very important for me to keep a good personal relationship with him so I can have good, candid discussions.”

“But nobody either wants to be lectured by somebody. Nobody either likes to be scolded publicly,” Bush added.”

Five years ago, Bush famously said in his first meeting with Putin that he had gotten a “sense of his soul”, but their relationship is widely seen as having cooled since then.

Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have accused Putin of restricting freedoms and using Russia’s vast energy resources to bully its neighbors.

U.S. officials who spoke to reporters on Thursday on condition of anonymity said that while Russia had made significant democratic reforms since the fall of communism, Washington was worried about recent trends.

They said it was a “good bet” that “our concerns about backsliding on democracy” will be on the agenda when Bush meets Putin. Bush and Putin will dine together on July 14 and hold bilateral talks the next day before the summit opens.

“Over the past couple of years, we have been concerned about the concentration of powers in the Kremlin, about the diminishing of space for public debate, the narrowing of the debate in the press,” one official said. “We want to gain reassurance that Russia is indeed committed to democracy.”

Differences over gas supplies to Europe, Russia’s accession to the World Trade Organization and competition for allies in the former Soviet Union have strained relations recently.—Reuters