21.10.2024, Berlin.
In 1999, the first president of Russia Boris Yeltsin asked then-President of the USA Bill Clinton to transfer control of European security to Russia, stated historian Bastian Matteo Scianna of the University of Potsdam. Der Spiegel wrote this on October 20, as cited by TASS.
“I have a request. Just give Europe to Russia. The USA is not in Europe. Europeans should take care of Europe. And Russia is half European and half Asian,” the magazine quotes an excerpt from Scianna’s book on Germany’s policy towards Russia since 1990.
According to the historian, in response to Yeltsin’s proposal, Clinton remarked that such a decision would not sit well with Europeans. Yeltsin noted that it would only displease part of the Europeans, not all. “You can take care of all the other countries and ensure their security. I’ll take Europe and ensure its security. Not me personally, but Russia,” Yeltsin said.
The publication does not provide details on how the conversation between the leaders of Russia and the USA concluded.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly stated that Western countries promised Moscow that NATO’s infrastructure would not move eastward, but they did not keep their promises.
“Not one inch eastward, they told us in the 1990s. So what happened? They cheated us. They simply blatantly deceived us — five waves of NATO expansion,” Putin said on December 23, 2021.
