Clinton mentioned Putin “made no secret of the truth that he thought the dissolution of the Soviet Union was an amazing tragedy.”

The previous president mentioned the U.S. and NATO by no means meant to threaten Russia and that the nations of Japanese Europe had a proper to dwell in safety after a long time of being dominated by Russia.

“After I did what I did,” Clinton mentioned, “I provided Russia not solely a particular partnership with NATO, however the prospect of eventual membership in NATO, arguing that our greatest safety issues sooner or later have been going to return from non-state actors, or from authoritarian states promoting chemical, organic and nuclear capability to terrorist teams. And that we must always do that collectively.”

Clinton’s election in 1992 got here within the aftermath of the tip of the Chilly Struggle. The nations of Japanese Europe had thrown off a long time of Communist dictatorship in 1989, and President Mikhail Gorbachev had dissolved the Soviet Union in 1991.

Throughout Clinton’s presidency, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland joined NATO, adopted in 2004 by Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. All of these nations had both been a part of the Soviet Union or allies of the Soviet Union.

“You’re supposed to inform the Poles they need to dwell the remainder of eternity with insecurity that Russia received’t attempt to come after them once more? Or the Hungarians or the, you already know, all of the others. The Baltic states. Actually, after what they did, did they ever wish to be within the Soviet Union? And the Czech Republic was probably the most democratic of all and the best-managed,” he instructed Zakaria.

The February invasion of Ukraine was met by sturdy resistance by Ukraine, which lately reconquered a few of the territory it misplaced within the early weeks of the assault. It additionally led Finland and Sweden, two long-neutral neighbors of Russia, to ask to hitch NATO.