MOSCOW (Reuters) - Accusations by the United States that Russia has backtracked on democracy are unfair, President Vladimir Putin’s top foreign policy aide was quoted as saying two days before Putin meets U.S. President George W. Bush.

Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) listens to NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer in Moscow June 26, 2007. REUTERS/Alexander Nemenov/Pool

Washington has criticized Moscow for rolling back democratic post-Soviet reforms and alongside rows over a U.S. missile shield plan in Europe and the status of the Serb province of Kosovo, relations between the two countries have sunk to a post Cold-War low.

“We consider unfriendly the recent intensification of criticism of Russia for allegedly retreating from democratic values and norms,” Russian news agencies reported Sergei Prikhodko as saying on Friday.

“These assessments are biased and unfair and we are ready to discuss these matters.”

Bush will host Putin at his family home in Kennebunkport, Maine, on Sunday and Monday -- the first time he has invited a foreign leader there -- to try and smooth over differences.

Prokhodko criticized U.S. politicians and businessmen for a poor knowledge of Russia, saying they followed “old principles and ideas” but warmly praised Bush as a “worthy and responsible partner”, Interfax news agency reported.

Russian authorities have quashed and banned anti-Putin protests this year ahead of parliamentary and presidential elections, drawing criticism from the West and from Bush himself.

But Putin has responded by calling himself the only true democrat in the world and challenging Western leaders to look in the mirror at their own societies and actions, which he says also have defects.

“Let’s look at what happens in North America -- sheer terror: torture, the homeless, Guantanamo, keeping people in trial without trial or investigation,” Putin said in an interview with Western media on June 4.

Washington’s plans to station part of a missile shield in eastern Europe, which it says is aimed against “rogue states” such as Iran and North Korea, have also angered Russia. Moscow has described it as a threat and Putin has threatened to retarget Russian missiles at Europe in response.

Russia has offered the United States the use of a radar station in Azerbaijan as an alternative. Washington is studying the proposal but only as a complementary move, not a substitute for missile shield installations in eastern Europe.

“We consider this issue not a military question but a political one,” Prikhodko told Russian journalists in reports carried on Friday.

“If they (the U.S.) want to cooperate, everything else is just detail.”

On the status of the Serbian province of Kosovo, Prikhodko said Putin would stick to his line that Russia’s ally Serbia should negotiate directly with Pristina on a solution.

Russia, which has a permanent place on the United Nations security council, is against Kosovo’s independence unless Serbia agrees and could veto the West’s plan to enact an independence plan if negotiations in coming months fail.

Serbia is strongly opposed to granting independence to Kosovo, a region which it considers the cradle of its culture.