MOSCOW, June 14. /TASS/. The world had a unique opportunity to build a reliable security system at the end of the last century, Russia was determined to do it, but the West saw it differently, President Vladimir Putin at a meeting with the leadership of the Russian Foreign Ministry.

"At the end of the twentieth century, after the end of the acute military-ideological confrontation, the world community had a unique opportunity to create a reliable, fair order in the field of security," the president said. "This did not require much: a simple ability to listen to the opinions of all interested parties and a mutual willingness to take them into account. Our country was determined to do exactly this kind of constructive work," he pointed out.

"However, another approach prevailed. The Western powers, led by the United States, felt that they had won the Cold War and had the right to determine for themselves how the world should be organized," the Russian leader said.

According to the president, "the practical expression of this worldview was the project of unlimited in space and time expansion of the NATO bloc." "Although there were, of course, other ideas on how to ensure security in Europe, but our fair questions were answered with excuses in the spirit that no one is going to attack Russia, and NATO expansion is not directed against Russia," Putin pointed out. "The promises made to the Soviet Union and then to Russia in the late 80s and early 90s about not including new members in the bloc were quietly forgotten. And if they remembered, they sneeringly referred to the fact that these assurances were verbal and therefore not binding," he emphasized.