Vladimir Putin has mentioned Bill Clinton misled him over Russia’s potential membership of NATO twenty years in the past.
During a prolonged interview with the previous Fox News host Tucker Carlson, the Russian president mentioned he requested the outgoing President Clinton if his nation may be a part of the alliance when he visited the Kremlin in 2000.
He claims Mr Clinton initially instructed he believed that will be potential, earlier than rowing again on the assertion later that very same night.
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Speaking by way of a translator, President Putin mentioned: “I requested him: ‘Bill, do you assume if Russia requested to hitch NATO, do you assume it will occur?’
“Suddenly he said, ‘you know, it’s interesting. I think so’.
“But within the night, once we met for dinner, he mentioned: ‘You know, I’ve talked to my group, no, it isn’t potential now’.”
In a dialog that spanned extra that two hours, Mr Putin spoke at size about his view of Russian historical past and the nation’s relationship with Ukraine from the ninth century to the current day.
On the topic of the conflict in Ukraine, he informed Carlson – who has been a vocal critic of US help for Kyiv – he could be ready to barter a peace with Volodymyr Zelenskyy however added that Russia had not but achieved its goals within the nation, together with “de-Nazification”.
He mentioned: “We have never refused negotiations indeed. We hear all the time, is Russia ready?
“Yes. We haven’t refused. It was them who publicly refused. Well, let him cancel his decree [not to negotiate with Russia] and enter into negotiations. We have by no means refused.”
Mr Putin further claimed that he “could not bear in mind” the last time he spoke to President Biden and that Russian defeat on the battlefield was “unimaginable”.
He mentioned: “Up until now, there has been the uproar and screaming about inflicting a strategic defeat to Russia on the battlefield. But now they are apparently coming to realise that it is difficult to achieve, if possible, at all.
“In my opinion, it’s unimaginable by definition. It is rarely going to occur. It appears to me that now those that are in energy within the West have come to understand this as effectively.”
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The Russian president additionally mentioned that he had “no interest” in attacking Poland or Latvia, saying he would solely accomplish that if both nation have been to assault Russia.
“It goes against common sense to get involved in some kind of a global war and a global war will bring all humanity to the brink of destruction. It’s obvious,” he says.
However, it needs to be remembered that in January 2022 Putin mentioned he had no plans to invade Ukraine, simply days earlier than he despatched tanks and troops over the border.
On the subject of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who has been in a Russian jail for nearly a yr, Mr Putin mentioned he wouldn’t “rule out” returning the journalist to the US, supplied the US takes “reciprocal steps”.
Russia has accused Gershkovich of being an American spy, one thing the US denies.
Tucker Carlson, who has been a vocal supporter of Mr Putin previously, was sacked from Fox News in April final yr.
He took up the prime-time weekday evenings spot on Fox News in 2016 along with his present, Tucker Carlson Tonight, and shortly established himself as a key participant within the community and an influential voice in Republican politics.
He typically embraced conspiracy theories and far-right points. He repeatedly questioned the efficacy of COVID vaccines and in contrast mandates to “Nazi experiments”.
While he discovered success with viewers, his inflammatory feedback prompted some advertisers to distance themselves from the programme.
Source: information.sky.com”