The former American president, Bill Clinton, said that he offered the Russian state leaders, Boris Yeltsin and Vladimir Putin, the possibility of Russia's membership in NATO.
In an editorial for the newspaper The Atlantic, he wrote about the development of relations between the alliance and Russia in the 1990s.
"All this time, we have kept NATO's door open for Russia to come in, which I made clear to Yeltsin and then to his successor, Vladimir Putin," Clinton said.
"I did everything I could to help Russia make the right choice and become a great democracy in the 21st century," he added.
Clinton recalled that in 1994, Russia became the first country to join the Partnership for Peace, a program of practical bilateral cooperation, including joint exercises between NATO and non-NATO European countries.
The former head of the United States also dismissed as false claims that the United States sought to isolate Russia and disrespect it, but acknowledged that NATO was expanding eastward despite Moscow's objections. /Telegraph/
