Leaders of the Group of Eight gathered Saturday for a three-day summit in a suburb of St. Petersburg, Russia's second city.
Sergei Prikhodko told a news conference, "The importance of democracy in accomplishing global tasks was discussed, including those on the G8 agenda, and not only concerning Russia."
Putin outlined his plans for Russia's economic and political development. "He was satisfied with the reaction from his colleagues," the presidential aide said.
Democracy in Russia was one of the themes addressed by Putin and his United States counterpart George W. Bush at talks on Saturday in advance of the summit.
At a news conference after the discussions, Bush said he had told the Russian president about his hopes for "institutional change" in the world, citing Iraq as an example of a new democracy, to which the Russian leader retorted: "We would not want to have a democracy like in Iraq."
"We believe that no one knows better than us how to strengthen our state. Yet we know that we cannot strengthen it without developing democratic institutions. But we will do this independently," Putin said.
The leaders of Russia, Germany, France, Italy, the United Kingdom, the United States, Japan and Canada will wrap up their meeting Monday.
