Published date says 2015 but context seems like 2002?

President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin rattled around Bush's Texas ranch in a pickup truck and feasted on mesquite-smoked beef Wednesday – and pressed toward an understanding on U.S. plans to develop a missile defense system.

A day after Bush and Putin agreed to reduce their nuclear stockpiles, White House aides cautioned against expectations of a breakthrough before Putin leaves Thursday. Talks had snagged Tuesday in the summit's opening at the White House, but were still on track, aides said.

https://www.foxnews.com/story/bush-putin-tour-texas-ranch-by-pickup-truck-talk-missile-defense

When Russian President Vladimir Putin picked up the phone to express his sympathy to President Bush in the aftermath of September 11 and then followed up by providing concrete assistance to the campaign in Afghanistan and quickly acquiescing to U.S. plans to establish bases in central Asia, Washingon policymakers and analysts concluded Putin had made a strategic, even historic, choice to align Russia’s foreign policy with that of the United States. It was a reasonable conclusion to make.

From the beginning of his presidency in January 2000, Putin pushed the idea of a concerted campaign against terrorism with American and European leaders. He was one of the first to raise the alarm about terrorist training camps in Afghanistan and to warn of linkages between these camps, well-financed terrorist networks, and Islamic militant groups operating in Europe and Eurasia. Russia also actively supported the Northern Alliance in its struggle with the Taliban in Afghanistan. In December 2000, Moscow joined Washington in supporting United Nations sanctions against the Taliban and later appealed for sanctions against Pakistan for aiding the Taliban. After the attacks on the United States, Putin went so far as to suggest he had been expecting a massive terrorist strike—it had only been a matter of time. The events of September 11 were a shock, but not a surprise. Putin’s support for Bush was consistent with his efforts to draw world attention to the terrorist threat.

The terrorist attacks also came at a time when Putin was trying to improve Russia’s relationship with the United States. After a rocky start with the Bush administration—marked by spy scandals and a dispute over U.S. intentions to build a missile defense shield and withdraw from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty—Putin had worked hard to build a personal affinity with Bush, remove the sense of confrontation, underscore that the Cold War was finally over, and find some mechanism for transcending differences. After September 11, it seemed that the war against terrorism could be just that mechanism. Russia and the United States had finally made common cause.

https://www.brookings.edu/articles/putin-and-bush-in-common-cause-russias-view-of-the-terrorist-threat-after-september-11/

Russia filed a report to the United Nations on Thursday, accusing Ukraine of committing acts of “genocide” against the “Russian-speaking population” in the country’s war-torn Donbass region. President Vladimir Putin could well use the charge—which seems to have no basis in fact—as a pretext to invade at least that area of Ukraine.

Also on Thursday, the Russian foreign ministry issued a lengthy statement threatening to take “military-technical measures” if the United States did not accept all of Moscow’s proposals on how to settle the crisis—even while knowing that, in Washington’s eyes, some of those proposals are nonstarters.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/02/putin-george-bush-blame-russia-ukraine.html

Russian President Vladimir Putin paid homage to former President George H.W. Bush on Saturday in a statement addressed to the late president's son, former President George W. Bush.

"Please, accept my deepest condolences on the death of your father, George Herbert Walker Bush, former president of the United States. An outstanding man, who has faithfully served his country all his life - with a weapon in his hands during the war and in senior government positions during peaceful times - is no longer with us," the Russian leader said.

“Realizing the significance of the constructive dialogue between the two major nuclear powers, George Bush Sr. did much to strengthen Russian-American relations and cooperation on international security issues,” he added.

https://thehill.com/policy/international/russia/419250-putin-pays-tribute-to-george-hw-bush-he-was-a-real-partner

President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin demanded Friday that Saddam Hussein comply with a U.N. resolution for Iraq to disarm, but the Russian leader also urged the United States against unilateral military action.

"We call on Iraq to comply fully and immediately with this and all relevant U.N. Security Council resolutions," the two leaders said in a joint statement after their private talks at the golden-domed Catherine's Palace.

That communiqué echoed a statement issued by NATO on Thursday that committed the alliance to pursuing a full accounting of Iraq's weapons programs.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/putin-to-bush-dont-go-it-alone/

https://youtu.be/iaFOYYciUbo

Joe Biden upped the ante in 2014, when he claimed that during a visit to the Kremlin three years earlier, he had informed Putin to his face that the man had no soul at all — and that the Russian leader basically agreed with this damning assessment. The anecdote appeared in Evan Osnos’s New Yorker profile of the then-vice-president:

To illustrate his emphasis on personality as a factor in foreign affairs, Biden recalled visiting Putin at the Kremlin in 2011: “I had an interpreter, and when he was showing me his office I said, ‘It’s amazing what capitalism will do, won’t it? A magnificent office!’ And he laughed. As I turned, I was this close to him.” Biden held his hand a few inches from his nose. “I said, ‘Mr. Prime Minister, I’m looking into your eyes, and I don’t think you have a soul.’ ”

“You said that?” I asked. It sounded like a movie line.

“Absolutely, positively,” Biden said, and continued, “And he looked back at me, and he smiled, and he said, ‘We understand one another.’”

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/bush-biden-putin-soul.html

https://youtu.be/rKeFXs8a0Xk