Vladimir Putin - Obama Presidency Oral History

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Vladimir Putin

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Jeh Johnson

...I changed that we had identified Vladimir Putin personally as having directed this. M...

Macon Phillips

...line to be going—I remember when Vladimir Putin and Ketchum, the PR firm, took out a...
...way. And it comes back to this Vladimir Putin -Ketchum PR, don't meddle in our hom...

Michael Kassen

...Medvedev, who was then the president. [Vladimir] Putin —I forget what his title was. He wa...

Derek Chollet

...Council—I'm forgetting exactly when [Vladimir] Putin returned to the presidency from bein...
...out of those northern oil fields. If Putin had been less greedy and had not take...
...from our perspective would've been if Putin tried to keep this—do things jus...
...that. I actually think that if you're Vladimir Putin and you're thinking that illegall...

Michael McFaul

...to Hot Peace: An American Ambassador in Putin 's Russia, published in 2018 by Marine...
...with then-autocratic Russia, back under Vladimir Putin and [Dimitry] Medvedev. And I woul...
...he lives in Russia and he deals with Putin . He was one of the leaders of th...
...success and mostly failure. Then in the Putin era, they go into opposition. Not al...
...Not all of them; some of them joined Putin . And Putin was part of them, by th...

...of them; some of them joined Putin. And Putin was part of them, by the way, bac...
...the way, back then. That's when I met Putin , working for NDI in the spring o...
...Then things changed and fell apart when Putin comes back and all that, but the basi...
...[Sergey] Lavrov was not that effective, Putin was off to the side, and their Ministr...
...is right after Russia invaded Georgia. Putin is in charge. Medvedev is a puppet. Mr...
...more to lose from doing stupid stuff. Putin had nothing to lose, in invadin...
...we had a great run with that. Until Putin came back, and really it was unti...
...for ending engagement with the Putin regime. I said that even before I go...
...about what we could do with Putin . Even before the demonstrations i...
...becomes this giant story because, one, Putin is back in power and, two, there ar...
...homework. He'd listened to this. The Putin meeting that Biden just had—Putin cam...
...The Putin meeting that Biden just had— Putin came to that meeting just to be there...
...vote to get reelected. He has to win Putin 's vote. That's the only guy tha...
...authorizing use of force, maybe Putin had decided before then that he wa...
...the language difference between him and Putin . No-drama Obama, very calm; Medvede...
...wasn't like he disagreed. He's not like Putin who's like, “You have no right to judg...
...game, just as it was with Biden and Putin . You're trying to change policy, bu...
...of the reset. Okay, yes. For me, when Putin announced that he's running, that's, i...
...were not going well in Libya, and Putin was publicly criticizing him for th...
...Then September twenty-fourth, when Putin announces he's going to run fo...
...statement that criticizes the election. Putin goes crazy. Medvedev calls Obama t...
...going to be a hard assignment because Putin was paranoid. I knew he was paranoi...
...is kind of like a lightning rod of what Putin 's case against the United States is...
...in May 2011, Lavrov was not sure that Putin was coming back because he an...
...deal. It was only the combination of Putin back and the demonstrations tha...
...and other senior people even in the Putin administration, they had in me a...
...with lots of people who work for Putin . I had way more access than you...
...to end because as I'm there, I'm like, Putin is in a very state of paranoia. We'r...
...attacked, and so now he's pissed off at Putin .” Tragically, I was more right tha...
...2009 and met with Medvedev and met with Putin and then spent a whole day meeting wit...
...was already moving that way. Then, when Putin announced that he was coming back a...
...those massive demonstrations against Putin and knowing what a paranoid person h...
...that had changed, how much of that was Putin personally being in power, his mindset...
...and just kind of switched jobs with Putin . There was a sense of betrayal—even i...
...were all deeply disappointed that Putin was coming back, including very senio...
...part of it, the counterfactual: no Putin on the ballot, no demonstrations. But...
...the time and plotting the overthrow of Putin . The only time I met the collectiv...
...a way out of this. This is before Putin had become president. I also remember...
...approach, even after the protests from Vladimir Putin . You talked about the difficulty o...
...except for one guy, and his name was Vladimir Putin . He really didn't like me, but hi...
...who's anybody in Moscow is there. Putin is the host. This was at a particula...
...known for thirty years, who also knows Putin well—I'll tell you off camera who I'...
...with George Kennan. He had just seen Putin maybe two weeks before, and Putin ha...
...seen Putin maybe two weeks before, and Putin had gone off on a tirade about me. H...
...this to me privately. He did not have Putin 's permission to tell me that. But he...
...association with me in front of all the Putin folks that were there. And that'...
...level with President Obama meeting with Putin . That's a change in diplomacy that ...
...was, tragically, that the individual of Vladimir Putin has mattered a lot. Most certainly fo...
...the world; they changed over time. The Putin I met in '91 is not the same guy tha...
...is today. I wrote my first piece about Putin and warning about his autocrati...
...believe in democracy? They do threaten Putin . It's not some big misunderstanding...
...me. Tragically, the view that I had of Putin , the evidence to support my hypothesi...
...about Navalny is not the reason that Putin invaded Ukraine. Maybe had w...

Daniel Russel

...to be part of a new university that [Vladimir] Putin had just built. A lot of the meetin...

Jim Steinberg

...of us felt, I felt, that as long as [Vladimir] Putin was in office that the way Puti...
...Putin was in office that the way Putin conceived Russia's interest—an...
...he was still totally subordinate to Putin , you could still be interested i...
...very brief and limited involvement with Putin , but it was a very direct one, whic...
...I was in the meetings with Clinton and Putin . It's been my conviction from th...

...conviction from the first meetings that Putin had a view about Russia and Russia...
... I also knew from the engagements with Putin that nothing short of that woul...
...nothing short of that would satisfy Putin . And that Putin—to his credit, that i...
...of that would satisfy Putin. And that Putin —to his credit, that is he is ...
...Not because of what we did; because of Putin 's views. I think of New START as on...

James Clapper

...thinking a lot about [Vladimir V.] Putin 's thinking about Russia's role on th...
...the time, what did you think was behind Putin 's actions in Ukraine? If you'r...
...If you're reasonably familiar with Putin and things he'd said, and hi...
...really not terribly surprising that Putin wouldn't seize an opportunity an...
...Crimea to Ukraine back in the '60s. So Putin regarded this as a terrible injustic...

...to do it, and this comported with Putin 's own image of Russian greatness, an...
...and put the blame right at the feet of Putin . We didn't name him explicitly but i...

John Brennan

...my Russian counterparts about that. Vladimir Putin has his own ideas about the Russia...
...to have better relations, but I think Mr. Putin has his own perspective and views th...
...through a Russian prism. And I think Vladimir Putin looks at it very much through a Puti...
...Putin looks at it very much through a Putin prism. By that, I mean after the fal...
...the fall of the Soviet Union, I think Putin felt, and feels still, and I think wit...

...think there was a sense, at least from Putin , that we did not really give Russi...
...investigations of that. So I think Putin is very sensitive to any perceived o...
...it was just a general slide in terms of Putin 's interest in trying to repai...
...I think it's important, given that Putin has been around for decades—sometime...
...whatever. I think people like Putin , or President Xi of China, or others...
...was, in terms of Russian interference. Putin obviously saw to his fortunes bein...

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Vladimir Putin - Obama Presidency Oral History

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