A 1999 phone call details the arrangement that placed a security chief in the Kremlin, shielded for years by a pact to ignore the "domestic cards" of human rights and corruption.
By Harlan Pryce ·
A 1999 cable, summarized in an archival finding aid, captures the moment the Kremlin began coaching the U.S. on the managed ascent of a former intelligence officer.
By Marcus Boone ·
Kept confidential for years, a 2000 Moscow cable captures the moment Russian liberals traded their opposition for job security while Vladimir Putin calculated the cost of a runoff.
By Theo Marchetti ·
Putin spent a 1999 summit convincing Bill Clinton that campaign rhetoric was irrelevant, while masking a pre-arranged succession with vague promises of "certain plans."
By Constance Bell ·
A Russian president promised to ensure a specific winner in the next election, a detail kept from the broader diplomatic corps under a "not distributed" order for 25 years.
By Harlan Pryce ·
Kept secret for years, a 2000 diplomatic cable shows how a sudden surge of state-backed strength masked the installation of a former intelligence officer
By Constance Bell ·
A ten-minute call on the final day of 1999 reveals the calculated handoff of a superpower to a former intelligence officer under the guise of a courageous resignation.
By Harlan Pryce ·
A cable marked 'Sensitive But Unclassified' details the promises made to Russian pensioners and investors before the state was captured by the security services.
By Theo Marchetti ·
The White House consciously ignored the manipulation of the 2000 Russian transition to secure a partner who offered a token human rights gesture in Chechnya—a deal kept secret for decades.
By Constance Bell ·
Kept confidential for years, the cable describes how some voters were coerced at home while others marked ballots for drunken friends.
By Marcus Boone ·
Civilians perished in Chechnya while the Russian Prime Minister played a geopolitical game with Bill Clinton in Oslo, a meeting captured in a 1999 memorandum of conversation.
By Harlan Pryce ·
A 2000 Kremlin dinner showed the early courtship of a leader who admired Stalinist executions, while the official government record of the talk remains classified.
By Eleanor Voss ·
Voters in the Russian Far East pinned their hopes for stability on Vladimir Putin while observers tracked family voting and a 30-minute blackout that plunged Oktyabrskiy into darkness.
By Marcus Boone ·
Vladimir Putin secured American approval for Chechen operations by citing a 'Terrorist International' as Bill Clinton pushed for Russia to join NATO.
By Harlan Pryce ·
For years, a private Kremlin exchange remained hidden in which Vladimir Putin cheered U.S. air strikes as deserved retribution and called Georgian authorities "idiots and chickens."
By Harlan Pryce ·
Fragmented coalition governments and Okinawa politics strained U.S. military presence as Vladimir Putin refused a December target to settle the Northern Territories.
By Roy Castellano ·