We live in a more dangerous world, we have Russia as a neighbor, which is ready to use military force against its neighbors, which started with Georgia in 2008, said NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.

Fundamentally, he says, what President Putin really fears is not NATO, but free democratic societies undermining his power in Moscow.

"We live in a more dangerous world, we have Russia next door, which is ready to use military force against its neighbors, not once, but several times in recent years, which actually started with Georgia in 2008...

If you look at the rest of Europe - Great Britain, France, Germany - they were on different sides in the wars that raged in Europe for centuries, and now they are best friends and allies in NATO and the EU. So, of course, it was right to hope for that in our relationship with Russia as well. But then, gradually, we saw Russia go the other way with its own actions against Georgia, Ukraine and other countries where it tried to establish its own sphere of influence in which big nations control what small nations do. And then NATO gradually, of course, needed to focus not on dialogue, but on deterrence and defense, specifically since 2014.

So you can always have a kind of academic discussion - this is important - about what could have been done differently. But the overall picture is that we, on the NATO side, were really trying to engage with Russia. Fundamentally, what President Putin really fears is not NATO, but free democratic societies undermining his power in Moscow. This is one of the reasons why he does not want to see a successful, free, independent, democratic Ukraine: because it really called into question his idea of how to rule and stay in power in Russia," Stoltenberg said.

*The quotes in the article have been double-translated from Georgian and wordings may be inaccurate.

source: IPN