Ex-Russian President Yeltsin Wished Russia Joined NATO First Followed By Others, Document Reveals

NATO flag - Sputnik Africa, 1920, 26.01.2024
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WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - Former Russian President Boris Yeltsin told then-US President Bill Clinton during a dinner in Moscow that he wanted Russia to be the first to join NATO, followed by other European countries, according to newly declassified US documents.
Yeltsin told Clinton during the dinner in 1994 that "Russia has to be the first country to join NATO," followed by other states from Central and Eastern Europe, according to the cable the US Embassy in Moscow sent to the State Department.

Yeltsin also proposed "a kind of cartel of the US, Russia and Europeans to help to ensure and improve world security," but Clinton avoided expanding on any of Yeltsin's proposals, the documents showed.

Clinton, according to the documents, told Yeltsin that a "relationship of trust and confidence" between the United States and Russia "could guarantee the countries of Europe a century of peace or more."
These documents were published by the US National Security Archive, founded by journalists and scientists, in 1985. The institution recently took legal action against the State Department, requesting the declassification of materials.
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