Vladimir Putin - Obama Presidency Oral History Back Vladimir Putin Index / People Transcripts Samantha Power ...never with the Russian Federation, or Vladimir Putin 's ambassador. So I knew I had a lo... ...barrel bombs. We knew that going to Putin about barrel bombs, that he couldn'... ...Russia isn't really going anywhere, Putin doesn't seem interested in that, i... ...as a shock to the Assad regime, to Putin , to me, to John Kerry, maybe even t... ...down and have a bilateral meeting with Putin . The timing of the summit i... ...been inscribed. But at the meeting with President Putin , even though our fate, or the fate, a... ...seemed set in stone, Obama mentioned to Putin , “I'd still really like to get thos... ...surprise and everyone's surprise, Putin showed interest in disabling th... ...but doesn't have a bright future. Putin , we would have thought, would hav... ...foreign policy through the ages that Putin just assumed was at work here. And so... ...happened out of that meeting is that Putin and Obama instructed John Kerry an... ...the international community, including Putin , with a sense of just how divided w... Show more... Colin Kahl ...in eastern Ukraine, really signifying [Vladimir] Putin trotting out on the world stage. An... ...by the end of the Obama administration, Putin 's aggression in Europe—transgressin... Wally Adeyemo ...against Russia was to make clear to President Putin that there would clearly be cost... ...did send a clear enough message to President Putin that it led to him being in a positio... Stephen Kroft ...Ukraine thing, and because of Syria, Putin was involved, and Russia was involved... Martin Dempsey ...In other words, it appeared to us that [Vladimir] Putin —and when I say “us,” I mean th... ...that what was really going on was that Vladimir Putin was solidifying his hold on Russi... ...Russian Federation made. I don't think Putin made them himself. He may have. Bu... Kenneth Roth ...justify what would in a sense justify [Vladimir] Putin 's assassination campaign in Europe an... ...and [Recep Tayyip] Erdoğan that got Putin to stop the bombing of civilians. S... ...dependent on Russian support. Putin could have just said, Stop, and i... ...didn't even use rhetorical pressure on Putin , which was the obvious nonmilitar... ...Assad can't slaughter civilians without Putin 's approval, which was true, you coul... Terry Szuplat ...the Baltics, who feel frightened that [Vladimir] Putin 's Russia is going to overwhelm them... ...tiny Balkan states who are terrified of Putin 's Russia, after what he did i... James Jones ...president, Prime Minister [Vladimir V.] Putin . I think five Americans and fiv... ...left office and was replaced by Putin who came in and just change... Ben Rhodes ...these other guys who really worked for [Vladimir] Putin . The relationship was going well, bu... ...Medvedev wouldn't be doing things that Putin , at the end of the day, didn't wan... ...that he must be doing that because Putin 's okay with it. In retrospect, if yo... ...point—the degree of the shift after Putin came back in in 2012, that analysis wa... ...out ahead—not far ahead—but ahead of Putin 's comfort zone. It's crazy to thin... ...ended up retrograding [laughs] under Putin . It's good that we got as much as w... ...recognize the turn fast enough with Putin . Yes, but it's interesting how muc... ...my age; he's Western, in a way that Putin 's not.” Obama met with Putin, an... ...a way that Putin's not.” Obama met with Putin , and Putin just gave him a Putin-lik... ...Putin's not.” Obama met with Putin, and Putin just gave him a Putin-like screed abou... ...with Putin, and Putin just gave him a Putin -like screed about all the crimes o... ...This is impossible to imagine Putin doing that. Obama also said that he wa... ...there's logic and reason, whereas with Putin , it's emotion and unreasonablenes... ...an argument that it just began when Putin returned to the presidency, in that yo... ...with Russia that seemed deliberate. Putin came back with a chip on his shoulder... ...politics to be dialed up. And you had Putin rebuffing any further arms control... ...rebuffing any further arms control, Putin doubling down on his support for Assad... ...doubling down on his support for Assad, Putin taking in Edward Snowden. Things ha... ...because it was a huge embarrassment to Putin during the Sochi Olympics, and within ... ...to go to war to liberate Crimea, Putin moved so fast that I just don'... ...One is, we had to do enough to stop Putin there. There was going to be ... ...There was going to be a temptation for Putin of perhaps completely swallowing u... ...international norm and law against what Putin did. So you're sending a message to al... ...book that Obama was on the phone with Putin a lot, from the beginning of the crisi... ...it—? No, it's a crisis. With Putin , Obama would have these endles... ...several of them. I learned a lot about Putin in those conversations, mainly tha... ...mainly that he—it's funny. Putin would lie, but the lies would be buil... ...sphere of influence, as defined by Putin . The NATO enlargement, the extensio... ...and disrespects and grievances. I think Putin truly believes that the US wants t... ...this complicated conversation because Putin was totally inflexible, and whateve... ...is, he became good at communicating to Putin —of not conceding anything, but als... ...to, I think, get messages across to Putin that were nuanced in what wer... ...I think he did accomplish stopping Putin in those easternmost provinces o... ...while showing a real cost to what Putin did. That's how I'd describe it. Di... ...That's the powerful counternarrative to Putin , and Trump, and Xi, and Modi, and al... ...of D-Day. There's him, and there's Putin . One stands for one kind of worldview... Show more... Load more Transcripts Related Topics go to the Gun Control Gun Control go to the Education Education go to the Republican Opposition Republican Opposition go to the Counterterrorism Counterterrorism go to the Public Health Public Health