Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (born October 7, 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who has served as Russia’s President since 2012. Putin has been president or prime minister continuously since 1999:[d] served as Prime Minister from 1999 to 2000 and again from 2008 to 2012, as well as President from 2000 to 2008 and again since 2012
Why has Vladimir Putin’s Relationship with the West deteriorated?
Many Western leaders initially backed Putin, with US President George W. Bush declaring that he had “looked the man in the eye,” found him “very straightforward and trustworthy,” and gained a “sense of his soul.”
Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Putin was the first foreign leader to phone Bush. And, despite his opposition to the Iraq War, Putin participated in portions of the so-called War on Terror. He also referred to Russia as a “friendly European nation” seeking “stable peace on the continent.”
However, Putin’s relationship with the West deteriorated, in part due to NATO’s 2004 expansion into seven Eastern European nations and pro-Western revolutions in Georgia and Ukraine. Putin was also irritated by the United States’ campaign to bring Georgia and Ukraine into NATO, as well as its support for an independent Kosovo. In 2007, he accused the US of violating “its national borders in every way.” Putin gradually started to see himself as a defender of historic Russian values, standing up to a hypocritical and morally degenerate West.
As tensions over Ukraine grew, Russia was kicked out of the Group of Eight industrialized nations in 2014. He provided asylum to US whistleblower Edward Snowden about the same time. And, according to US intelligence services, he meddled in the 2016 U.S. presidential election by authorizing a computer hacking operation that infiltrated Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
Putin and US President Donald Trump maintained cordial relations. However, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the US-Russia relationship perhaps reached its lowest ebb in decades. Since then, Russia has faced a storm of economic sanctions, Ukraine has received significant Western military aid, and US President Joe Biden has referred to Putin as a “thug,” a “murderous dictator,” and a “war criminal.”
Source: thpttranhungdao.edu.vn/en/
Categories: News
Source: thpttranhungdao.edu.vn/en/
