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Former US President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin briefly bonded in 2001.
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They held a summit in a rural Texas city of 705 folks the place Bush owns a close-by ranch.
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Putin and his spouse stayed on the ranch, and later, the 2 presidents took questions from native college students.
Two months after the September 11 assaults, Russian President Vladimir Putin joined former US President George W. Bush in a rural Texan city of 700 folks, the place Bush owns the close by Prairie Chapel ranch. The 2 leaders additionally spoke at a highschool, after winding down on the ranch, in accordance with NPR.
The now-unimaginable assembly happened in Crawford, Texas, on November 15, 2001, and was billed because the Crawford Summit, with each presidents lower than a yr into their first phrases in workplace.
It was an period when Putin admired Bush and Russia was making an attempt to normalize relationships with the West after the autumn of the Soviet Union in 1991. The assembly mirrored a optimistic second in American and Russian relations — and a glimpse of Putin early in his rise to energy in Russia.
“We had an ideal dinner final evening; we had a little bit Texas barbecue, pecan pie, a little bit Texas music. And I feel the President actually loved himself,” Bush informed the scholars, in accordance with the George W. Bush White Home archives. “I informed him he was welcome to return again subsequent August to get a real style of Crawford. He mentioned, tremendous, and possibly you’d prefer to go to Siberia within the winter.”
Throughout his speech, Bush talked about that Putin and his spouse Lyudmila stayed the evening at his Prairie Chapel ranch.
“It is my honor additionally to introduce President Putin to Crawford. I wager a variety of of us right here, notably the older of us, by no means dreamt that an American President could be bringing the Russian President to Crawford, Texas.” Bush mentioned. “Lots of people by no means actually dreamt that an American President and a Russian President may have established the friendship that we’ve. We have been enemies for a protracted time frame.”
Bush added that “we’re working collectively to interrupt the previous ties, to determine a brand new spirit of cooperation and belief in order that we will work collectively to make the world extra peaceable.” His speech largely targeted on combatting terrorism and seeing Russia as a companion in that combat.
“On our approach right here, we did not anticipate in any respect that issues could be so heat and homey as they have been on the ranch of President Bush right here,” Putin mentioned. “Yesterday, we had a shock, however at this time’s assembly is yet one more and really nice shock, certainly, for us. Certainly, in any nation, the spine of any nation is just not solely the individuals who reside within the capitals but in addition and largely, the individuals who reside a whole lot and 1000’s of miles from the capital.”
Putin’s feedback largely lauded Russian contributions to the US and highlighted shared cultural histories by means of migration.
College students then requested questions concerning the US invasion of Afghanistan, a warfare that was solely two months previous on the time. One scholar requested the 2 leaders, ” How do you suppose the autumn of the Taliban authorities will have an effect on girls’s rights?”
Bush spoke first, saying that “there is not any query the Taliban is probably the most repressive, backward group of individuals we’ve seen on the face of the Earth in a protracted time frame, together with and notably how they deal with girls.”
He informed the scholars he wished Putin to talk on the subject of human rights as nicely. Putin answered subsequent, saying that “in Afghanistan, this phenomenon has taken an excessive type, and the disrespect of human rights has acquired excessive dimensions.”
“Total, girls in Afghanistan are mainly not handled as folks,” Putin mentioned.
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