Putin has repeatedly said that Russia learned an important lesson from Yugoslavia: cooperating with the West did not mean Russia’s interests would be respected. Declassified documents make the before-and-after fascinating. June 15, 1998. Clinton calls Yeltsin about Yugoslavia. Yeltsin promises to pressure Milošević and push him toward negotiations. But he also gives Clinton an explicit warning: if NATO attacks Yugoslavia without UN Security Council authorization, it will be a serious blow to Russia-NATO cooperation. Then the conversation turns to money. Russia desperately needs financial support. Clinton assures Yeltsin that he backs additional IMF and World Bank funding, praises Russia’s new reformist government and tells him it is exciting investors. Nine months later, NATO bombs Yugoslavia without Security Council authorization. Yeltsin condemns it. Primakov, already flying to Washington, turns his plane around over the Atlantic. Then comes the rest of 1999. Islamist militants invade Dagestan. Russia is hit by devastating terrorist attacks. The Second Chechen War begins. Putin has his own interpretation of what Russia learned from that sequence. The declassified documents show the warning that came before Belgrade. What followed afterwards raises a much darker question. Coincidence?