Vladimir Putin and George W. Bush, 2001. Photo: Kremlin
The National Security Archive at George Washington University has released transcripts of Vladimir Putin’s meetings with U.S. President George W. Bush, held in 2001, 2005, and 2008. The publication of these previously classified documents became possible thanks to a court decision which determined that they fell under the purview of the Freedom of Information Act.
According to the transcripts, during their first personal meeting in 2001 Putin spoke about the frustrations that Russians at all levels of society were feeling ten years after the collapse of the Soviet Union:
“People in Russia feel deceived by large-scale changes that brought more freedom that they can't enjoy. Not just the poor, but the elite also feels frustrated. What really happened? Soviet goodwill changed the world, voluntarily. And Russians gave up thousands of square kilometers of territory, voluntarily. Unheard of. Ukraine, part of Russia for centuries, given away. Kazakhstan, given away. The Caucasus, too.”
The 2005 meeting is notable for Putin’s assessment of life in North Korea, a country he had visited in July 2000:
“I used to be a member of the Communist Party. I believed in the ideas of communism. I was prepared to die for them. It's a long road to inner transformation. People are limited to the cubicle they live in. And many are sincere in what they believe. The North Koreans live in more seclusion than we lived in. They are more isolated than the Soviet Union was under Stalin. The overwhelming number are prepared to die. This is not East Europe or East Germany.”
Finally, in 2008, Putin told Bush that he was categorically opposed to Ukraine and Georgia joining NATO. Explaining his position with regard to Ukraine, Putin claimed:
“[The] accession to NATO of a country like Ukraine will create for the long term a field of conflict for you and us, long-term confrontation. Seventeen million Russians live in Ukraine, a third of the population. Ukraine is a very complex state. This is not a nation built in a natural manner. It's an artificial country created back in Soviet times… NATO is perceived by a large part of the Ukrainian population as a hostile organization. This creates the following problems for Russia: this creates the threat of military bases and new military systems being deployed in the proximity of Russia, and relying on the anti-NATO forces in Ukraine, Russia would be working on stripping NATO of the possibility of enlarging [to Ukraine]. Russia would be creating problems there all the time…and given the divergent views of areas of the population on NATO membership, the country could just split apart.”