“There was a chance for a reboot” – Kommersant FM

Hillary Clinton accused the Russian president of NATO expansion. The point is that even those countries that previously did not want to join the alliance changed their minds under the influence of Moscow’s actions, including in Ukraine. The Kremlin responded to this by saying that the former US Secretary of State was distorting the facts. In fact, the Russian side had to respond to the expansion of the military bloc to the east. Kommersant FM political commentator Dmitry Drize believes that it is too late to look for the culprits.

Hillary Clinton spoke at a special ceremony to mark the unveiling of her portrait. This honors her service as the 67th Secretary of State of the United States of America. Madam former Secretary of State and US presidential candidate spoke on the topic of the day. She praised the current foreign policy chief, Antony Blinken. In particular, for rebuilding the bridges that Donald Trump burned.

And so Clinton addressed Russian President Vladimir Putin personally, noting that you, Vladimir, are to blame for NATO’s expansion to the east. Many publications translated her words as an address to “you” – it really sounds more impressive: “Alas, “Vladimir. You yourself are to blame for this.”

The point is that no one was forced into the alliance, the countries themselves were afraid of such a new Russia that rose from its knees, and urgently asked for protection from the Western military bloc.

Clinton has previously made personal attacks on the Russian President. Her most famous statement was from 2008 that Putin, by definition, cannot have a soul, because he was a KGB officer. The press secretary of the head of the Russian state, Dmitry Peskov, responding to the current passage regarding NATO, also decided to delve into history. Dmitry Sergeevich recalled how Hillary Clinton, as head of the State Department, gave her Russian colleague Sergei Lavrov a souvenir in the form of a large red button with the inscription “overload” in Russian.

Of course, the “reset” was meant as a hope for a quick improvement in relations between the two countries. But as they wrote, that’s how it turned out in the end – it was like looking into water. Or maybe they weren’t mistaken at all, but acted with intent. Let’s leave this to lovers of conspiracy theories and mysticism. According to Peskov, Clinton always distorts everything and turns everything upside down. In fact, the West behaved aggressively, and we were forced to respond.

What’s the moral of this whole story? First, to be fair, it is worth noting that back in 2013, NATO was in a clear crisis and was actively trying to find a use for itself. It was very difficult to imagine that the block was going to expand anywhere.

And, in fact, the main thing: there was a chance for a reboot. Things could have gone differently, but they didn’t. It would seem that there is nothing to be upset about – it’s good. We don’t need them, we have our own path – the right one. And they rot. We will build our own “Global North”, if we haven’t already.

But sometimes it begins to seem that many in the Russian Federation seem to regret that they were not able to reboot then. And we live in conditions of constant overload, and a new chance may not present itself. You need to drive these thoughts away from yourself. At least try.

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