Go to mediabankBill Clinton. File photoWASHINGTON, Sep 19NATO expansion into Eastern Europe prevented an earlier crisis in the region, says former US President Bill Clinton. «I think we did the right thing at the right time. If only we if they didn’t, then the crisis could have happened even earlier,” he said in an interview with CNN. According to the ex-president, he suggested that the Russian authorities join forces to counter future common risks emanating from both “non-state actors and authoritarian countries that sell chemical, biological and nuclear weapons to terrorist organizations.» «I offered Russia not only the status of a special NATO partner, but also the prospect of membership,» Clinton added. In turn, Moscow has repeatedly noted that the North Atlantic Alliance is aimed at confrontation. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov previously called the alliance's actions in Iraq, Libya and the former Yugoslavia a tragedy, where the people's right to life was trampled on by NATO «in the most rude and illegal way.» At the same time, as Dmitry Peskov, press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation, emphasized, the expansion of the bloc will not bring greater security to Europe. NATO to the East
