Yup, no US administration ever tried working with Putin. Okay
Read Putin's early mafia like history.
In 1990, Putin was a loser who had lost his job as a KGB agent in Germany. A mediocre with no future. He met with corrupt politicians in St. Petersburg and one by one eliminated them.
On 17 February 2000, Putin met with Sobchak and urged him to travel to Kaliningrad to support his election campaign. Sobchak traveled there, accompanied by two assistants who also served as his bodyguards. On 20 February 2000, Sobchak died suddenly in the town of Svetlogorsk in Kaliningrad Oblast. The initial suspected cause of death was a heart attack, but the findings of two medical experts were contradictory. A criminal investigation of Sobchak's death as a possible "premeditated murder with aggravating circumstances" was opened only on 6 May 2000, more than two months later. After three months, the investigation was closed without a finding. The Democratic Union party led by Valeria Novodvorskaya made an official statement that not only Sobchak, but also two of his aides had heart attacks simultaneously, which indicated poisoning.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatoly_Sobchak