page_title: Russia–United States relations
section_title: From Putin’s first term through end of George W. Bush’s second term (2000–09)
hierarchical_section_title: Russia–United States relations / History / From Putin’s first term through end of George W. Bush’s second term (2000–09)
caption_attribution_description: English: PETERHOF. President Putin with US President George W. Bush after the water and musical show, Peterhof Magical Fountains. Right - Lyudmila Putin and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.Русский: ПЕТЕРГОФ. С Президентом США Джорджем Бушем по окончании водно-музыкального представления «Феерия петергофских фонтанов». Справа – Людмила Путина и Председатель Совета министров Италии Сильвио Берлускони.
context_page_description: Russia–United States relations refers to the bilateral relationship between the United States and the Russian Federation. The United States and Russia maintain diplomatic and trade relations. The relationship was generally warm under the Russian President Boris Yeltsin until the NATO bombing of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in the spring of 1999, and has since deteriorated significantly. In 2014, relations greatly deteriorated further due to the crisis in Ukraine, Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014, differences regarding Russian military intervention in the Syrian Civil War, and from the end of 2016 over Russia's alleged interference in the 2016 U.S. elections. Mutual sanctions imposed in 2014 remain in place.
context_section_description: During the first presidencies of Vladimir Putin, who assumed the top office, first as acting president, on the last day of 1999, and United States President George W. Bush, the United States and Russia began to have serious disagreements. Under Putin, Russia became more assertive in international affairs; under Bush, the U.S. took an increasingly unilateral course in its foreign policy in the wake of the September 11 attacks.
  The Russian leadership blamed U.S. officials for encouraging anti-Russian revolts during the Rose Revolution in Georgia in 2003 and the Orange Revolution in Ukraine a year later that was seen by the Putin administration as intrusions into Russia's geographic sphere of interest.
  Nevertheless, Putin and Bush were said to have established good personal relations.
  In 2002, the United States withdrew from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in order to move forward with plans for a missile defense system. Putin called the decision a mistake. Russia strongly opposed the 2003 invasion of Iraq, though without exercising its veto in the United Nations Security Council. Russia has regarded the expansion of NATO into the old Eastern Bloc, and U.S. efforts to gain access to Central Asian oil and natural gas as a potentially hostile encroachment on Russia's sphere of influence.
caption: Russia strongly opposed the U.S.-led 2003 invasion of Iraq.
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