Photographer: Armend Nimani/AFP/Getty Images
Putin’s Russia Is 20 Years Old and Stronger Than Ever. Or Is It?
Two decades after he rose to power, Vladimir Putin has restored the country’s global reach—but at home, risks are growing.
A few months after his astonishing rise to power, Vladimir Putin, then 47, was eager to please at his first Kremlin summit with an American counterpart: Bill Clinton.
The retired KGB colonel’s charm offensive started with an elaborate dinner of wild boar and goose, followed by a tour of his private quarters and a jazz concert that entertained his saxophone-playing guest until midnight. At some point, Putin would later say, he dropped a bombshell by asking if Russia could someday join NATO, the Western military alliance created to counter Moscow’s global machinations after World War II.