Pro-Western Putin

When Vladimir Putin first became President of Russia in 1999–2000, he was regarded as a very pro-Western politician and made numerous indications that he was very favorable to the idea of Russia joining NATO. In 2000 Putin told Bill Clinton that he "didn't mind" the idea of Russia becoming a NATO member. But in the mid-2000s, this changed, with his at the 2007 Munich Security Conference stating that the American-led unipolar world order was coming to an end being seen as signalling a major turning point. The color revolutions in Georgia and Ukraine in 2003 and 2004–2005, respectively, are believed to be driving factors behind this change, among other events. But what if things had gone differently, and Russia under President Putin had stayed on course? What if Putin remained pro-Western?

Description
Departure point: Russia is among the Eastern European countries invited to the November 2002 Prague summit, in which their future membership in NATO is discussed. The idea of Russia joining NATO to permanently end the lingering Cold War tensions and begin a new era of relations at the dawn of the new millennium is seriously discussed. President Vladimir Putin, who was the first to call U.S. President George Bush after the 9/11 attack, states that Russia and the U.S. can cooperate in the global war on terror. At the summit, negotiations were finalized and an agreement was reached for the creation of a counter-terrorism NATO Rapid Reaction Force of 20,000 troops. Among those would be Russian forces.

Further discussions were carried out between the NATO–Russia Council meetings throughout 2003. The struggle against terrorism and joint peacekeeping operations in the Balkans were seen as the main areas of cooperation. Russia also provided logistical support for the U.S. operations in Afghanistan. Shortly before the 2004 Istanbul summit, the Russian Federation became a formal member of NATO along with seven other former Eastern bloc states. Since then, Russia, the United States, and other NATO countries have had a high level of cooperation in both the military sphere, as well as culturally and economically.