Tony Blair sought to encourage Vladimir Putin to adopt western values in the belief that the new Russian president was at heart a “Russian patriot” worthy of a seat at the international “top table”, according to newly released official files.
This was despite the serious reservations that senior British civil servants were expressing at the time about whether the former KGB intelligence officer could be trusted.
The papers, released this week to the National Archives in Kew, show the prime minister’s efforts to woo Putin in the early days of his presidency when the Russian war in Chechnya was raging, and persuade western allies to do the same.
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