The issue of President Vladimir Putin’s top aide dismissing that Russia is backtracking on democracy is expected to be in the spotlight at next week's meeting of Putin and U.S. President George W. Bush.

The U.S. House of Representatives almost unanimously passed a resolution urging the Russian president to invite foreign experts to help investigate the killings of independent journalists in Russia.

U.S. President George Bush is questioning Russian President Vladimir Putin's commitment to democracy. VOA White House Correspondent Scott Stearns reports Mr. Bush spoke in the Czech Republic at the start of a six-nation tour of Europe.

Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves says the "principled selective isolation" of Russia should be an option for dealing with Russian actions that threaten democracy.

U.S. President George W. Bush says much tension exists between the West and Russia. In an interview with the Reuters news agency, Bush said his message for President Vladimir Putin was that Russia's "interests lie in the West."

Russian opposition leader Garry Kasparov has compared the government of President Vladimir Putin to the dictatorships in Belarus and Zimbabwe. Kasparov said that while Russia might be closer to the European Union than to Africa, politically it resembles the dictatorship of Zimbabwe more than the democracies of Germany or France.

Concerns over Russia's democratic record will be on the agenda of the twice-yearly U.S.-EU summit -- where, in the words of one senior EU official Russia now occupies a "prominent" place.