U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton addresses students of MGU (Moscow State University), 14 Oct 2009

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is returning to Washington after telling an audience in Russia that attacks on journalists and human rights defenders there threaten progress toward democracy.

Clinton spoke Wednesday to university students in Moscow on the last day of a European tour. She said people should be free to take unpopular positions and, in her words, "challenge abuses of authority."

Earlier, she told Ekho Moskvy radio that she raised the issue of the killing of journalists at a meeting Tuesday with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev.

Before leaving for Washington later in the day, Clinton stopped in Russia's ethnically diverse republic of Tatarstan. She visited an Orthodox cathedral and a Muslim mosque, and called Tatarstan a model of religious tolerance.

Western governments continue to pressure Moscow on human rights since the 2006 unsolved murder of journalist and Kremlin critic Anna Politkovskaya.

Moscow also has been criticized in the killings of several human rights activists in Chechnya, including the kidnap-murder of noted activist Natalya Estemirova earlier this year.

While Clinton was talking about political freedom Wednesday, a group of opposition Russian lawmakers walked out of parliament to protest alleged fraud in local elections this week. They are demanding a recount of votes after members of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's United Russia party won most of the races for mayors and local legislatures.