Sceptical of Russia, Clinton seen going toe-to-toe with Putin

U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton attends a bilateral meeting with Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko (R) at a hotel in New York, U.S. September 19, 2016. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - When Hillary Clinton attended her first major White House meeting on Russia in February 2009, the new secretary of state insisted that she wanted to play a leading role in President Barack Obama’s effort to "reset" U.S. relations with Moscow.

But while Clinton became implementer-in-chief for one of Obama’s signature first-term initiatives, she was consistently more sceptical than most of his top aides about how far Russian leader Vladimir Putin was prepared to go in turning the page, according to current and former U.S. officials.