VIDEO: 'We don’t care that you are concerned.' Putin outraged
Russian President Vladimir Putin, during his 17th annual large press conference, addressed the security guarantees presented to the West and Moscow's expectations from them. He stated that the Russian side has made it clear that the further eastward expansion of NATO is unacceptable.
"The question is not about security, it is about ensuring it. The process of negotiations is not what matters, the result does. 'Not an inch eastward,' they told us in the 1990s. And what happened? They deceived us, brazenly deceived us. Five waves of NATO expansion, and now systems are appearing in Romania and Poland. You promised us that you would not expand your presence to the east. And now you are asking, ‘Where is it written, on what paper?’ You know, we don’t care that you are concerned. Did we reach the borders of the U.S.? They came to us. Now they say that Ukraine will be NATO-compatible on a bilateral basis. And you are demanding guarantees from me. You should provide guarantees, you! Right now, not by talking about it for decades,” said Putin.
The Russian leader also posed a rhetorical question about how Americans would react if Russians were to place their missiles at the borders of Canada and the United States or Mexico and the United States.