Maine 2007: When Bush Called Putin ‘Honest And Transparent’ — See Video

US-Russia Ties: The United States after President Donald Trump's return to power in January this year saw a dramatic realignment of its foreign policy, with the Republican leader appearing to be steering the country toward a warmer relationship with Russia, especially in the context of Ukraine. However, in a step that may have left many startled, Trump Friday threatened new sanctions on Moscow, including in the banking sector, in response to what he called Russia's continued "punding" of Ukraine. Meanwhile, amid all the cries over the "realignment" of US foreign policy, an old clip of former Republican president George Bush's 2007 meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin is being widely shared on social media, offering a reminder that US-Russia relations were not always as adversarial as they are now. The clip, filmed at Bush’s family home in Maine, captured the former president expressing confidence in his Russian counterpart — a sentiment that, in hindsight, echoed the recent approach of Trump 2.0. The 2008 Russo-Georgian war is seen as a defining moment that marked the shift from post-Soviet cooperation between Russia and the West to what it has been in the last few decades, though the perceived muted response from the EU and the US — little consequences for Moscow for its actions, a ceasefire that largely favoured Russia, and the Barak Obama administration's "reset" effort with the Kremlin after coming to power — is believed by many to have emboldened Moscow to act with impunity in the region under its influence, Ukraine included.