Bush Begins Europe Tour.

President Bush arrived in Eastern Europe yesterday for a weeklong trip that his advisers said would highlight a U.S.-backed expansion of democracy across the region.

The trip will be punctuated by the final official meeting between a weakened Mr. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is leaving office next month but will remain a powerful figure in his nation.

Germany appears to be "succumbing to Kremlin pressure" on the matter, said Janusz Bugajski, director of the New European Democracies Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

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