MOSCOW, Feb. 21 Russia received five waves of NATO expansion, we were simply deceived, the president said Russian Federation Vladimir Putin in his address to citizens. «Today, one glance at the map is enough to see how Western countries have kept their promises to prevent NATO from moving east. They simply deceived us. We received five waves of NATO expansion one after another,» Putin said. explained that in 1999 Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary were admitted to the alliance, in 2004 Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia, in 2009 Albania and Croatia, in 2017 — Montenegro, in 2020 — North Macedonia. Putin said that in 2000 he spoke with then-US President Bill Clinton in 2000 about the attitude of the United States to Russia's entry into NATO, and the reaction of the American leader was restrained. «I will say something that I have never said publicly. In 2000 the time of the visit to Moscow of the departing Acting as President of the United States Bill Clinton, I asked him: “How will America react to accepting Russia into NATO?” I will not disclose all the details of this conversation, but the reaction to my question looked, let’s say, very restrained, but how did the Americans really react to this possibility, is actually seen in practical steps towards our country,» Putin said during the address. According to the President, the deployment of NATO reconnaissance radars in Ukraine will allow control of Russian airspace up to the Urals.
February 3, 18:46
