Leonid Mlechin. Putin. Russia is faced with a choice (№ 274773)

Say that in 2002 Putin in a conversation with one of major Western representative spoke about the possibility of Russia joining NATO. He said that the North Atlantic bloc does not send invitations. Have how all, to apply. And Putin seems to be answered:
Russia in turn does not arise.
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The stumbling block was again the expansion of NATO to the East, the inclusion of the block of those States that in Moscow consider to be their natural partners. While Putin has consistently avoided answering the question: why are almost all of Russia's neighbors so eager to join NATO? Not because I do not trust Moscow and you want her to protect?
- I would not say that NATO is the stinking corpse of the cold war, said in December 2007 Putin. But it is certainly something that we have inherited from the past...