"Putin, Russia & the West" considers the political record of Vladimir Putin, a former KGB spy who became president and later prime minister of Russia and a valued ally of the West. The series includes interviews with Putin's colleagues and the Western statesmen who eventually clashed with him. In the first episode, former US national security advisor Condoleezza Rice recalls a meeting with Putin three months before September 11 in which he gave former American president George W Bush a prophetic warning about Pakistan, Afghanistan and the Taliban. Former Russian defence minister Sergei Ivanov also recalls a period after the destruction of the Twin Towers when Putin rejected an offer from the Taliban to join forces against America. The four-part documentary premiered on BBC Two in January 2012.