Overview
- The National Security Archive published contemporaneous records of 2001 and 2008 Putin–Bush conversations after winning a court fight for access.
- In an April 6, 2008 exchange, Putin labeled Ukraine an "artificial country" and warned that its NATO accession would produce long-term confrontation with the West.
- Putin pointed to Soviet-era territorial transfers and sizable Russian populations in Ukraine to argue the country was fragmented and skeptical of NATO.
- In a June 16, 2001 discussion, he raised the prospect of Russia joining NATO, cited a denied 1954 Soviet application, and said he had never viewed the United States as a threat.
- The documents surfaced a day after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy outlined a U.S.-backed 20-point peace plan that keeps NATO aspirations, which Russia has signaled it wants changed.