Russian American relations
Russian challenge awaits Barack Obama
It was May 2001, and Vladimir Putin was worried. George W Bush had been in the White House for nearly five months and the Russian president had still not been able to persuade the new American leader to meet him.
Relations between Moscow and Washington were fraught. Egged on by Condoleezza Rice, who built her career as a Sovietologist, George Bush had attacked Russia on the campaign trail, accusing it of brutality in Chechnya, then expelled 50 Russian diplomats after an investigation exposed a Moscow mole, Robert Hanssen, at the heart of the FBI.
Even so, Putin was desperate to be friends with both the United States and its new president, even though Mr Bush showed far less interest in Russia than his predecessor, Bill Clinton.
The White House finally succumbed to Kremlin badgering and the two men met for the first time in a castle outside the Slovenian capital Ljubljana. Putin was at his most charming and at his best prepared.
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