In 2008, Russian President Vladimir Putin convinced then-US President George Bush Jr. that Ukraine was an artificial state with a divided society, and warned that its entry into NATO would lead to Russia’s long-term confrontation with the West, as well as the disintegration of Ukraine itself. This follows from a declassified transcript of their conversation published by the National Security Archive at George Washington University. TASR informs about it.
- Putin called Ukraine an artificial state already in 2008.
- At the beginning of his term, Bush considered Putin an ally.
- Putin warned against Ukraine joining NATO.
At the beginning of his tenure, Bush considered Putin his ally
A total of three verbatim transcripts of conversations between Bush and Putin in 2001, 2005 and 2008 have been released to the public as a result of a Freedom of Information lawsuit filed by the archive. According to the archive’s statement, the conversations show that Bush considered Putin a close ally early in his tenure as US president, as both focused on the fight against terrorism – Putin in Chechnya and Bush against al-Qaeda.
At the end of Bush’s term, however, Putin expressed sharp criticism of US policy on several occasions, for example on the issues of the invasion of Iraq and the expansion of NATO. It is in this context that the current head of the Kremlin, at a meeting with Bush in Sochi, held shortly after the NATO summit in Bucharest in 2008, issued a warning regarding Ukraine’s possible entry into the Alliance. The NATO summit then declared that both Ukraine and Georgia would become members of the Alliance in the future.
Interview transcripts
“This will be nothing new for you and I don’t expect any answer, I just want to say it out loud. I would like to emphasize that the accession of a country like Ukraine to NATO will create a long-term field of conflict for you and for us, a long-term confrontation,” according to the transcript, the Russian president told the American at their last meeting at Putin’s residence in the city on the Black Sea coast.
“There are 17 million Russians living in Ukraine, which is a third of the population. Ukraine is a very complex state. It is not a nation that arose naturally. It is an artificially created country that arose back in Soviet times,” continued Putin, who ordered Russian troops to invade neighboring Ukraine on February 24, 2022, in response to Bush’s clarifying question.
Putin: Russia will constantly create problems there
In addition, the Russian president claimed at the meeting that Ukraine’s possible entry into NATO would pose a threat to Russia, that new weapon systems would be deployed and military bases established in its vicinity, which would create additional threats and uncertainty.
“Russia, relying on anti-NATO forces in Ukraine, will work to make NATO lose the opportunity to expand. Russia will constantly create problems there. Why is this? What is the point of Ukraine’s membership in NATO, what is the benefit for NATO and the US? It can only have one reason, and that is to consolidate Ukraine’s position as part of the Western world, that is probably the logic. I don’t think it is the right logic,” Putin declared.
On Tuesday, Volodymyr Zelensky presented the latest version of the American peace plan
At one time, he also claimed that there is a “certain pro-Western and a certain pro-Russian part” in Ukraine and that “a large part” of its population perceives NATO as a hostile organization. “And due to differences of opinion on NATO membership, the country will simply fall apart,” he said. “The problem is not joining NATO, but ensuring Ukraine’s self-sufficiency,” he added, adding that its economy should also be strengthened.
A transcript of another conversation the leaders held in Slovenia in 2001 also shows that Putin – following Bush’s alleged words that Russia is not an enemy of the United States – raised the issue of Russia’s membership in NATO and stated that if Moscow is not part of the Alliance’s expansion process, it feels excluded. “The fact is that NATO is expanding and we have nothing to say about it,” the head of the Russian state said at the time. Bush responded to this, according to the recording, with a question about Putin’s approach to a free press.
On Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky presented the latest version of the American peace plan for ending the war with Russia. According to him, this proposal no longer requires Ukraine to formally give up its ambition to join NATO, which is, however, one of Russia’s main demands.
