June 16, 2001: Putin asks why Russia is not being accepted into NATO, says the country feels "abandoned"
Vladimir Putin and George W. Bush met for the first time in Slovenia. Putin immediately emphasized that Russia does not perceive the United States as an enemy and has never considered it a threat, even during the Cold War. Bush responded that Russia belongs to the West, and the world is threatened by others — terrorists and rogue states.
Putin says people in Russia feel cheated by the big changes: “Soviet goodwill changed the world, voluntarily. And the Russians gave up thousands of square kilometers of territory, voluntarily. They gave up Ukraine, which had been part of Russia for centuries, Kazakhstan, the Caucasus. It’s hard to imagine, and it was done by party bosses.”
Separately, he justified Russiaʼs contacts with North Korea and Iran: when the Soviet Union collapsed, a danger appeared on Russiaʼs southern border — Islamic radicalism. Russia needed leverage, and it could not be obtained in any other way.
Bush replied that the United States did not want to humiliate Russia, but at the same time criticized the war in Chechnya, human rights violations and restrictions on press freedom.
Putin asked when Russia would be accepted into NATO, recalling that the USSR applied for membership in 1954.
“Maybe Russia could be an ally. But the real question is how to associate Russia with the rest of the civilized world. NATO is expanding, and we have nothing to do with it. Russia feels abandoned,” he says.
George W. Bush (left) and Vladimir Putin during their first meeting in Slovenia, June 16, 2001.
September 12, 2001: George Bush talks about an "alliance" with Russia against terrorism
The day after the terrorist attacks in the United States, Putin calls Bush to offer his support. The brief conversation laid the foundation for what Bush would later call an “alliance” with Russia in the fight against terrorism.
The US president said that the Russian leader was “the first to call” after the attacks, that he planned to “work together in a new spirit” and show the world that “free-loving people” can unite in the face of a common threat. Bush called the terrorists “cowards” against whom the US and Russia must stand together.
October 21, 2001: "Do you think that every Chechen is a terrorist?"
Vladimir Putin and George W. Bush spoke during the APEC summit in Shanghai. Putin supported the US president in the way he dealt with the aftermath of the September 11 attacks and said he understood his situation well, as Russia itself had suffered mass terrorist attacks. It was then that he directly linked Al-Qaeda, Afghanistan and Chechnya. Russia and the US, he said, have the same problem, just in different territories.
“Do you think every Chechen is a terrorist?” Bush Jr. asked him.
“No, but all the militants are. They are students of bin Laden. Bin Laden trained them. You would know that if you saw the photos. They even look like him,” Putin replied.
The Kremlin leader said that Russia is providing the United States with all available information about the Taliban and Al-Qaeda because their "defeat" is in Russiaʼs interests. At the same time, he complained that the American side does not always share data in return, citing legal restrictions. Bush acknowledged that "the ice of the Cold War is still melting".
Putin also asked whether the “Jackson-Vanik” amendments, which restricted American trade relations with Russia as the successor state of the USSR, would be repealed. Bush promises to act, but says that “Congress is afraid of the Jewish community” (the amendments were passed in 1974 to encourage the USSR to allow Jews to emigrate).
Putin says he will “do everything except one thing: if they want me to be circumcised, I can’t do it!”
Chinese President Jiang Zemin (left) walks with Vladimir Putin (second from left), US President George W. Bush (second from right) and Hong Kong Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa (right) before a group photo at the APEC summit in Shanghai, October 21, 2001.
November 13, 2001: Bush says Putin is the kind of guy he would like to be in the same trench with
Vladimir Putin and George Bush met in the Cabinet Room of the White House, and the US president immediately drew attention to the symbolism of the moment — an American and Russian president had never sat here together before.
He said it marked a new phase of a “new relationship” and a “new alliance” between the United States and Russia. Bush noted: “President Putin has been very vocal about his country’s interests. I told him that my wife and I don’t always agree 100 percent on everything, but we still love each other. President Putin says that he and his wife always agree; their marriage is extraordinary — he does everything she says.”
Separately, Putin said that there are foreign militants in the Caucasus and Chechnya, so Russia is not fighting Chechens, but international terrorism. In a conversation about Afghanistan, both presidents spoke sharply. Bush said that the United States will not stop until it destroys Al-Qaeda.
“We need to kill them like rats, or bribe them,” Putin says.
“We’ll catch them. Dead or alive. And I have the advantage,” Bush replies. And then he calls Putin a guy he’d like to be in the same trench with.
George Bush and Vladimir Putin during a joint press conference at the White House, November 13, 2001. A resident of Crawford, Texas, holds a T-shirt with the words "The Russians are coming" on the eve of Putinʼs visit to George W. Bushʼs ranch, November 14, 2001.
March 18, 2003: Putin gives a lecture on international law on the eve of the Iraq War
Two days before the US invasion of Iraq began, George Bush called Vladimir Putin to personally inform him that the decision had been made. The day before, Bush had publicly given Saddam Hussein 48 hours to leave the country and warned that if he refused, the United States would launch a military operation.
The American president promised that the US would do everything possible to ensure that as few civilians as possible died, that Iraq preserved its borders, and that the main goal — to deprive the regime of weapons of mass destruction — would be achieved.
Putin responded that the United States was making mistakes. He believes that diplomatic options have not yet been exhausted, and he insists on taking the United Nations and international law seriously.
“The most important thing is that we should not replace international law with the law of force. We should look together at how we can minimize the damage to the UN. I would like to repeat that. I know the sentiments of your aides, and I believe that we should return this process to the UN.”
Both leaders agree to disagree, but at the same time maintain a partnership.
George W. Bush (left) and Vladimir Putin greet each other during an afternoon toast at the Bush ranch on November 14, 2001, in Crawford, Texas.
September 16, 2005: Putin tells Bush how he believed in the idea of communism and was ready to die for it
The Oval Office was mostly about stopping nuclear proliferation and uniting efforts around Iran and North Korea. Putin recalled his recent trip to North Korea, noting that even his bodyguards said after the trip that they never wanted to go back. Bush joked that the North Korean bodyguards would probably want to escape with Putin, too.
At this point, the Kremlin leader tells how sincerely he believed in communism: "I was once a member of the Communist Party. I believed in the ideas of communism. I was ready to die for them. It is a long path to internal transformation. People are limited by their own bubble in which they live. And many sincerely believe in what they believe."
He noted that North Koreans were even more isolated than the citizens of the USSR under Stalin, and that the vast majority of them were indeed willing to die for their state and its ideology, and that any serious change in thinking required rapprochement between the North and the South.
Bush agreed: "Thatʼs right."
April 6, 2008: Putin says Ukraineʼs NATO membership is a direct path to conflict
The leaders last met in Sochi, right after the NATO summit in Bucharest. Putin, for the first time, laid out his position on Ukraine and Georgia in the most frank and detailed way possible. He immediately warned that he did not expect an answer, he just wanted George Bush to hear him.
“The accession of a country like Ukraine to NATO will create a long-term field of conflict for you and for us, a long-term confrontation,” he said.
Putin called Ukraine an “artificial country” created during the Soviet era and listed which territories were annexed to it and when: after World War II, Ukraine received territory from Poland, Romania and Hungary, which is almost all of western Ukraine. In the 1920s and 1930s, Ukraine received territory from Russia, which is the eastern part of the country. In 1956, the Crimean peninsula was transferred to Ukraine.
He said that Ukraine is home to 17 million ethnic Russians, and the country is deeply divided by language, culture and political views. He said that NATO is a hostile organization for most Ukrainians, and if Ukraine joins the Alliance, the country will split.
“Seventy percent of the population is against NATO,” Putin said.
Discussing Georgia, Putin warned that if it joins the Alliance, it may try to take back Abkhazia and South Ossetia by force. He predicted a guerrilla war, compared the possible scenario to what happened in Afghanistan, and stated that NATO would not fight for these territories.
Bush only stated, "I admire you. There is no doubt about your position."
George Bush and Vladimir Putin during a meeting at the Bocharov Ruchey residence in Sochi, April 5, 2008.