MOSCOW, February 9. /TASS/. Washington put pressure on other NATO countries, promoting the idea of expanding the alliance to include Ukraine and Georgia, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview with Tucker Carlson published on the US journalist’s website.
"In 2008, at the summit in Bucharest, they declared that the doors for Ukraine and Georgia to join NATO were open," he noted. "Germany, France seemed to be against it, as well as some other European countries. But then, as it turned out later, [US] President [George W.] Bush - and he's such a tough guy, a tough politician - as I was told later, ‘he exerted pressure on us and we had to agree’," Putin said.
"And then they say ‘Ukraine won't be in NATO, you know’. I say ‘I don't know. I know you agreed in 2008. Why won't you agree in the future?’ ‘Well, they pressed us then.’ I say, ‘why won't they press you tomorrow and you'll agree again?’ Well. It's nonsensical. Who's there to talk to? I just don't understand. We're ready to talk. But with whom? Where are the guarantees?" the Russian president added.