The National Security Archive at George Washington University has released declassified records of talks between Vladimir Putin and former US president George W. Bush held in 2001–2008. The documents show how the tone of their dialogue shifted from relatively warm at the start of the 2000s to much sharper after the NATO summit in Bucharest.
At their meeting on June 16, 2001 in Slovenia, the presidents discussed strategic stability, missile defense, Iran, North Korea, and NATO expansion. Bush said a strong Russia was in the US interest, while also raising press freedom and the war in Chechnya, calling massive force and violations of minority rights an unacceptable way to resolve the conflict. Putin, avoiding the media issue, complained about Russia’s treatment by the West and about NATO.
During the September 16, 2005 meeting in the Oval Office, Iran became the central topic. Putin warned that rushing the issue to the UN Security Council could push Tehran toward a North Korean scenario. Bush acknowledged that a military option was undesirable, but said it could not be ruled out entirely, especially given Israel’s position.
Putin said that if Ukraine moved toward NATO, Russia would rely on anti-NATO forces inside the country and would “constantly create problems there.”
At the Sochi meeting on April 6, 2008, immediately after the Bucharest NATO summit, the disagreements became especially stark. Putin described possible NATO membership for Ukraine and Georgia as a source of long-term confrontation and laid out Russia’s objections to NATO enlargement and to US missile defense elements in Poland and the Czech Republic. According to the archive, Bush did not alter the US position but said Russia’s view had been expressed with complete clarity.