Russian Threat: How Barack Obama Misundersood Vladimir Putin

Writing in the Daily Beast, former Clinton administration official and editor of Foreign Policy, David Rothkopf, asks a good question: Why is it that the West has gotten Vladimir Putin “and the nature of the threat he poses so wrong?” It is a pity that the answer he posits is so unsatisfying.

Rothkopf locates the origins of the West’s misapprehensions about Putin and the attenuated superpower he led in 2001, when George W. Bush infamously concluded that the Russian leader was “straightforward and trustworthy” after he gazed into the future autocrat’s eyes and got “a sense of his soul.” From there, we gloss over 16 years of clarifying history and jump to 2017 and Donald Trump’s rhetorical infatuation with Russia’s president. But the interim years over which Rothkopf glides have more to teach us than that.

About the Author

Noah Rothman

Noah Rothman is a senior writer at National Review. His third book, Blood and Progress: A Century of Left-Wing Violence, was published by Hachette in May 2026.

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Writing in the Daily Beast, former Clinton administration official and editor of Foreign Policy, David Rothkopf, asks a good question: Why is it that the West has gotten Vladimir Putin “and the nature of the threat he poses so wrong?” It is a pity that the answer he posits is so unsatisfying.

Rothkopf locates the origins of the West’s misapprehensions about Putin and the attenuated superpower he led in 2001, when George W. Bush infamously concluded that the Russian leader was “straightforward and trustworthy” after he gazed into the future autocrat’s eyes and got “a sense of his soul.” From there, we gloss over 16 years of clarifying history and jump to 2017 and Donald Trump’s rhetorical infatuation with Russia’s president. But the interim years over which Rothkopf glides have more to teach us than that.

About the Author

Noah Rothman

Noah Rothman is a senior writer at National Review. His third book, Blood and Progress: A Century of Left-Wing Violence, was published by Hachette in May 2026.