I have heard this a thousand times. Of course every state has the right to organize its security the way it deems appropriate. But the states that were already in NATO, the member states, could also have followed their own interests - and abstained from an expansion to the east.
Vladimir PutinJapan announced that it would not comply with this declaration [ 1956]. Later on, the Soviet Union also declared that the declaration could not be fulfilled unilaterally, by the USSR alone.
Vladimir PutinThis is not our job, but we always follow the actions of our European partners closely and we wish them luck.
Vladimir Putin