“With regard to NATO expansion, bringing NATO infrastructure closer to Russian borders is an extremely important thing for the security of Russians, Russia,” Putin said.
He recalled two "waves of NATO expansion to the east", when relations with the United States by the collective West were "even" and quite acceptable.
“Nevertheless, all of our so-called concerns were simply ignored.
And all the preliminary agreements, though they were of an oral nature with Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev ... They were forgotten, consigned to oblivion.
I don’t want to use harsh words, but they just spit on our interests and that's it, ”the head of state said.
Putin stressed that this happened "in the conditions of good relations."
In November 2020, the Russian president announced that NATO was expanding its presence in Europe near Russia's borders, in addition, the alliance ignored Moscow's proposal to reduce military activity during the coronavirus pandemic.