According to him, this is not excluded after the departure of Russian President Vladimir Putin from power.
“Can we imagine that after Putin Russia will become a member of NATO and part of the security system in Europe?” Kirill Martynov, editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta Europe, asked.
“Nothing is impossible for a democratic country,” Stoltenberg replied.
He noted that in the 90s of the twentieth century, there were “gradual rapprochement”, but under Putin the country has chosen the path opposite to the democratic one.
“Russia, alas, has moved in the exact opposite direction, turning into an authoritarian state that suppresses political opposition and free media. Therefore, I repeat, relations between NATO and Russia could develop much better and faster if Russia chose the democratic path of development. But Vladimir Putin’s government has taken a fundamentally different path,” Stoltenberg added.
The NATO Secretary General recalled that earlier experts rejected the possibility of the Baltic countries joining NATO.
“Nevertheless, it happened. So democracy will definitely triumph – the only question is when it will happen. Freedom is better than lack of freedom, democracy is better than authoritarianism,” he added. there is no practical need for this, since the war launched by Putin against an independent Ukraine has neither meaning nor purpose.”
Days before Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 21, Putin claimed he had spoken to then US President Bill Clinton in 2000. about Russia’s membership in NATO. Clinton’s reaction, according to the head of the Kremlin, “seemed very reserved.”
George Robertson, who was NATO Secretary General from 1999-2003, said that Putin, after coming to power, wanted Russia to be invited to NATO. The head of the Kremlin, having heard that the Alliance does not invite anyone, but accepts countries that apply, said that Russia “will not stand in line with many countries that don’t matter,” Robertson said.
Stoltenberg said on October 20, 2021 that relations between NATO and Russia are now are at the lowest level since the end of the Cold War. According to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, these relationships are not.
Relations between Russia and NATO became more complicated after Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the outbreak of hostilities in eastern Ukraine.
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