FACTBOX: Quotations from Bush and Putin

(Reuters) - President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet on Monday in Kennebunkport, Maine. Following are some quotations from U.S. and Russian officials that illustrate the complex relations between the two countries.

* Early in Bush's term:

Bush (2001): "I was able to get a sense of his soul."

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell in Russian newspaper Izvestia (January 2004): "Russia's democratic system seems not yet to have found the essential balance among the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government. Political power is not yet fully tethered to law."

* In July 2006, around the time of a Group of Eight summit in Russia:

Putin: "We have come up with a joint statement about the importance of fighting acts of nuclear terrorism."

Bush: "I talked about my desire to promote institutional change in parts of the world like Iraq, where there is a free press and free religion, and I told him that a lot of people in our country, you know, would hope that Russia would do the same thing."

* At a conference in Munich on February 10, 2007, Putin accused the United States of seeking to impose its will on the world.

Putin: "People are always teaching us democracy but the people who teach us democracy don't want to learn it themselves."

* Bush, who did not attend the Munich conference, was asked about U.S.-Russian relations after Putin's criticism.

Bush (February 14): "It's a complicated relationship. It's a relationship in which there are disagreements. But there's also a relationship in which we can find common ground to solve problems. And that's the spirit I'll continue to work with Vladimir Putin on."

* Bush discussed Russia in an interview with Reuters on May 21.

Bush: "My message to Vladimir Putin is there's a better way forward, and your interests lie in the West, and we ought to be working together in a collaborative way."

* In early June 2007, as Bush pressed for a missile defense system based in Eastern Europe:

Putin: "It is clear that if a part of the U.S. nuclear capability turns up in Europe, and, in the opinion of our military specialists, will threaten us, then we are forced to take corresponding steps in response. What will those steps be? Naturally, we will have to have new targets in Europe."

Putin: "Let's not be hypocritical about democratic freedoms and human rights. The United States today is the main violator of freedoms and human rights on a global scale ... there are also grievances towards France and Great Britain and Germany."