Sir Tony Blair courted Vladimir Putin, despite officials’ misgivings

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Vladimir Putin’s name is now synonymous with villainy and deceit – but two decades ago the desire to integrate Russia into the geopolitical establishment was such that Sir Tony Blair invited him for a seat at the summit table.

Newly released documents from the National Archives reveal how, in the aftermath of 9/11, Sir Tony and other Western leaders thought Moscow could engage with counterterrorism and the liberal world order and persuaded it to do so.

Just months after Putin shocked the West with his army’s brutal destruction of the Chechen capital, Grozny, he was courted by Sir Tony, who visited him in Russia in March 2000.

Archival materials reveal the former prime minister’s intent to reach out to his Russian counterpart.

However, other world leaders were skeptical, with the United States in particular cautious about whether Moscow had really changed.

In a summary of a February 2001 phone call between Sir Tony and Dick Cheney, then US Vice President, the Prime Minister described Putin as a “Russian patriot” with a “similar mindset” to Charles de Gaulle.

He told Sir Tony Cheney that he was “less critical than some” about Putin’s brutality in Chechnya, and that “there is a danger of the West being naïve” on the issue.

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The note also read: “He [Sir Tony] I realized that Putin has a low approval rating in the United States. But he thought it was better to allow him a place at the summit table and encourage him to reach out to Western positions as well as the Western economic model.”

Sir Tony had been courting Putin for nearly a year at that point, and his visits fueled debate over the legitimization of brutal Russian tactics in Chechnya.

However, the Prime Minister was not deterred, and another memo revealed that Sir Tony had traveled to Moscow in October 2001 with a set of “No. 10 Silver Buttons” as a birthday present for the Russian President.

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