Putin’s Russia turns 20, and is stronger than ever — or is it?

A few months after his astonishing rise to power, Vladimir Putin, then 47, was eager to please at his first Kremlin summit with a US counterpart: then-US president Bill Clinton. The retired KGB colonel’s charm offensive started with an elaborate dinner of wild boar and goose, followed by a tour of his private quarters and a jazz concert that entertained his saxophone-playing guest until midnight. At some point, Putin would later say, he dropped a bombshell by asking if Russia could someday join NATO, the Western military alliance...