FRONTLINE traces how Vladimir Putin went from courting a partnership with the United States to treating it as an adversary bent on undermining him. Reporters and producers working out of Moscow and Washington interview former U.S. and Russian officials, diplomats, and journalists who watched the relationship sour in real time, from Putin's early meetings with George W. Bush to his growing conviction that American-backed democracy movements in neighboring countries were aimed at him personally. Archival footage covers the color revolutions in Georgia and Ukraine, NATO's eastward expansion, and the protests inside Russia that Putin publicly blamed on Washington. The film builds toward the argument that these grievances, real or perceived, shaped the harder, more confrontational Putin who later moved against Ukraine and worked to influence American politics. It is the first installment of a two-part account, laying out the personal and political history that the second part uses to explain the 2016 election interference.