PRESIDENT BUSH: I thought the discussion was a good discussion. It's not the first time that Vladimir and I discussed our governing philosophies. I have shared with him my desires for our country, and he shared with me his desires for his. And I talked about my desire to promote institutional change in parts of the world like Iraq where there's a free press and free religion, and I told him that a lot of people in our country would hope that Russia would do the same thing.
I fully understand, however, that there will be a Russian-style democracy. I don't expect Russia to look like the United States. As Vladimir pointedly reminded me last night, we have a different history, different traditions. And I will let him describe to you his way forward, but he shared with me some very interesting thoughts that I think would surprise some of our citizens.
Now that I've lured you into the deal here, you know -- like, for example, how do you promote land reform. So we discussed land reform. You know, one of the interesting decisions a government has to make, particularly this government would have to make, is how do you encourage private ownership of land further than that which has already happened.
Anyway, he shared some thoughts with me. Sorry to put -- lay the trap out there for you -- but it was a good discussion. He's a strong man. Look, he's willing to listen, but he also explains to me, he doesn't want anybody telling him how to run his government. He was elected. And so it was a cordial relationship. But he can speak for himself.
PRESIDENT PUTIN: We certainly would not want to have the same kind of democracy as they have in Iraq, I will tell you quite honestly. (Laughter.)
PRESIDENT BUSH: Just wait.
PRESIDENT PUTIN: But it is true that we have discussed this issue at length, on the initiative of the President of the United States, and on my own initiative, as well. It is true that we assume that nobody knows better than us how we can strengthen our own nation. But we know for sure that we cannot strengthen our nation without developing democratic institutions, and this is the path that we will certainly take. But certainly, we will do this by ourselves.
Я только выделил фразы Busha Путина. Даже если бы Буш не брякнул "just wait", которая не много меняет, упоминание Ирака в этом контексте было, по меньшей мере, некорректным. Фактически он сказал следующее: "Мы разрушили Ирак и теперь довольны тем, что там происходит. Мы хотели бы, что бы в России произошли такие же изменения". Слов нет! Даже хамством не назовёшь. Самая настоящая угроза, на которую Путин, видимо, как хозяин встречи, отреагировал очень мягко.
