MOSCOW, February 9. /TASS/. Moscow could have joined NATO if the US had demonstrated a sincere wish for that back in the 2000s, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview with Tucker Carlson published on the US journalist’s website.

Putin recalled his Kremlin meeting with then US President Bill Clinton in 2000. "I asked him: ‘Bill, do you think if Russia asked to join NATO, do you think it would happen?’ Suddenly he said, ‘you know, it's interesting. I think so.’ But in the evening, when we met for dinner, he said: ‘You know, I've talked to my team, no, it's not possible now’," Putin said.

"If he had said yes, the process of rapprochement would have commenced, and eventually it might have happened if we had seen some sincere wish on the side of our partners," he added.