MOSCOW. Feb 22 (Interfax) - Russian President Vladimir Putin has admitted that in 2000 he proposed the United States take Russia into NATO.
"I will tell you something which I have never said before publicly, I will talk about it for the first time. In 2000, when outgoing U.S. President Bill Clinton visited Moscow, I asked him what America's attitude to taking Russia into NATO would be," Putin said in a televised address on Monday evening.
Without providing details of the conversation, Putin said, "The reaction to my question was rather reserved. And how the Americans treated this possibility in reality can actually be seen from their practical steps with regard to our country."
"This includes supporting terrorists in the North Caucasus, a negligent attitude to our demands and concerns in the security sphere - NATO enlargement, the withdrawal from the ABM Treaty and so on. A question arises: Why? What for?" Putin said.
The U.S. did not want to have Russia as an ally and moreover in fact made an enemy out of it, he said. "There is only one answer, this is not about our political regime or anything else. They simply do not need a large and independent country like Russia. This is the answer to all questions; this is the source of traditional American policy on the Russian track. Respective attitudes to our proposals in the security sphere stem from it," he said.