Overview
- Verbatim records released after a National Security Archive FOIA lawsuit, processed by the US National Archives, publish private Bush–Putin exchanges from 2001 to 2008.
- In their first meeting in 2001, Vladimir Putin told George W. Bush he was concerned about Pakistan, calling it “just a junta with nuclear weapons.”
- A 2005 Oval Office transcript records Putin saying uranium of Pakistani origin was found in Iranian centrifuges, with Bush noting Iran failed to declare it to the IAEA.
- The leaders repeatedly flagged the A. Q. Khan proliferation network and pressed Pervez Musharraf’s government on suspected transfers to Iran and North Korea despite public counter‑terror cooperation.
- Indian officials and commentators welcomed the documents as corroboration of long-standing concerns about Pakistan’s proliferation record and weak transparency.