Twenty -five years of tense relationships between Putin and US presidents

Since Yeltsin’s resignation on December 31, 1999, Washington has suspected his political godson, Putin. He is “a hard man (…), very determined, oriented to the action,” said the in charge of American diplomacy of the time, Madeleine Albright. “We will have to watch your actions very carefully,” he added.

However, during the first Clinton-Putin summit, in June 2000, the American praised a president in public, according to him, capable of building a “prosperous and strong Russia, while protecting, at the same time, freedoms and the rule of law”.

George W. Bush: From camaraderie to distrust

After his first meeting, on June 16, 2001, George W. Bush said he looked at the Russian President in his eyes: “I could see his soul: that of a man deeply dedicated to his country (…) I consider him an extraordinary leader.”

After September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, Putin, who had begun the Second Chechnyan War, immediately offered his solidarity to President Bush in the “war against terrorism.”

But in December 2001 Washington withdrew from 1972’s ABM Antibalistic Treaty to create an antimysis shield in Eastern Europe, criticized by Moscow.