Russia Might Have Joined NATO If United States Had Agreed To It: Putin

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that the Moscow might have joined the NATO in the early days of his presidency in the year 2000 if the US had agreed to it.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance of 31 member states – 29 European and two North American (US and Canada).

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"Well, I became president in 2000. I thought, okay, the Yugoslav issue is over, but we should try to restore relations. Let’s re-open the door that Russia had tried to go through," Putin said in an interview with American journalist Tucker Carlson.

Carlson further pressed Putin on if he would have joined NATO had the former US president said, "yes" at the time.

Putin answered that it "might have happened", but that he was not "bitter" or resentful that it did not happen.

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