WASHINGTON, March 3. /TASS/. NATO, which was originally conceived as a defensive alliance, has been an offensive bloc ever since the late 1990s, a former U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union (1987-1991), Jack Matlock, said in his article published on the American portal Responsible Statecraft.

"It is often alleged that Russia has nothing to fear from NATO because it is purely a defensive alliance. Yes, it was conceived as a defensive alliance to protect Western Europe ... but in the late 1990s NATO began to be used as an offensive alliance'," the diplomat points out.

Matlock notes that he was a participant in the negotiations when the Western countries promised the leadership of the Soviet Union not to expand NATO to the East European countries. "I can testify that assurances were given to [Mikhail] Gorbachev orally by the American secretary of state, James Baker, that NATO jurisdiction would not move to the east," Matlock recalls.

He pointed out that declassified documents also show that former British Prime Minister John Major and former German Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher also gave similar assurances.

"In fact, it had been Genscher's idea. It is these assurances to which President Vladimir Putin refers repeatedly as broken promises. Although they were not formalized in a treaty, they were promises and they have been broken," Matlock stressed.

Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin at a press conference following the BRICS summit in Kazan in October 2024 accused the West of unfair expansion of the North Atlantic Alliance and emphasized that Russia would achieve a change in the situation. At the same time, the Russian leader noted that it was also unfair on the part of the West to "lie to its face" and promise Russia that there would be no NATO expansion to the East.