Putin asked Bush Jr. to take Russia into NATO: transcript declassified
Vladimir Putin and George W. Bush in 2008 (Photo: ERA)

Russian dictator Vladimir Putin 24 years ago, he actually asked then US President George W. Bush to join NATO. This is stated in a declassified transcript of their meeting in the summer of 2001. The conversation was published by the National Security Archive, a non-governmental research center at Georgetown University.

"Now let me come back to NATO enlargement. You know our position. You made an important statement when you said that Russia will not be an enemy <…> Russia is European and multiethnic, just like the United States... I can imagine us becoming allies. It is only imperative that we unite with others. But we feel excluded from NATO. If Russia is not part of it, of course, it feels excluded," Putin said .

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He emphasized that in 1954, the Soviet Union applied to join the Alliance, and he has this document. NATO then gave a negative answer, citing four specific reasons: the absence of an Austrian settlement, the absence of a German settlement, totalitarian control of Eastern Europe, and the need for Russia's cooperation in the UN disarmament process.

"Now all these conditions have been met. Perhaps Russia could become an ally... But the real question is how we associate Russia with the rest of the civilized world. The fact is that NATO is expanding, and we have nothing to say about it," Putin said at the time .

Bush Jr. did not respond specifically to these theses, except to say "that's interesting," but in general, during the conversation he emphasized that Russia was allegedly moving toward democracy, that Russia's interests were on the side of the West, that Russia and the United States should cooperate, and that in 50 years China could become a "big problem.".

BACKGROUND
This conversation took place during a summit in Slovenia on June 16, 2001, the first summit between Bush Jr. and Putin (the "Bush-Putin summit"). It was also Bush's first official trip to Europe as president of the United States. At the time of the meeting, Putin had been heading Russia for a little over a year (his first term began on May 7, 2000), and Bush Jr. had been in office for a little less than a year (his first term began on January 20, 2001).
  • Having launched a genocidal full-scale war against Ukraine, Putin claimed that one of the reasons was allegedly Ukraine's desire to join NATO. Moscow demands that the Alliance not expand, while it is precisely because of Russia's aggression that two more countries have joined the Alliance after 2022 – Finland and Sweden .
Vladimir PutinNATOgeorge W. Bushvladimir Putintranscript