Taking Control

It’s June 2001. US president George W Bush meets Russian president Vladimir Putin, and declares he looked him in the eye and 'got a sense of his soul'. Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice recall the discomfort they felt during the meeting. But Rice, the only Bush adviser in the private talks, reveals that, three months before 9/11, Putin gave Bush a prophetic warning about Pakistan, Afghanistan and the Taliban. After 9/11, Putin describes how he convinced his shocked colleagues that Russia should align with the West. Sergei Ivanov, Russian's defence minister, tells how the Taliban secretly offered to join forces with Russia against America.