President George W. Bush thinks Russian President Vladimir Putin wasn’t always the volatile, land-grabbing leader he is today, revealing in an interview that aired Thursday that the former KGB officer has “changed.”
Bush sat down with CNN‘s Jake Tapper in Crawford, Texas, the location of the 43rd President’s “W100k,” a mountain bike ride for wounded Iraq and Afghanistan veterans. The two men discussed measures to better help veterans and their families, but Tapper couldn’t resist posing a few questions on current events — including the situation with Russia.
During his time in office, Bush had originally “said some encouraging things” about Putin, Tapper pointed out. The host then asked if Bush had misjudged the Russian leader.
“I think he changed,” Bush said. “Of course, a president should open the door and give people a chance, except for the despicable tyrants. And he was not, at that time, he was — he looked like he wanted to be, you know, work with the West.”
Bush said that once the price of oil increased, Putin seemed less eager to work with Western nations and moved to silence the press. That money, Bush told Tapper, “emboldened” the former KGB officer and “changed his attitude.”
“I tried to convince him, and I’m sure the President [Obama] has, that we both should win,” Bush said. “And by both nations doing well, our people do well. And it seems like Vladimir Putin takes a different attitude about such situations.”
