Lars von Trier; Russian lives matter

"Well, we’re not standing in line with a lot of countries that don’t matter.’”

Vladimir Putin wanted Russia to join Nato but did not want his country to have to go through the usual application process and stand in line “with a lot of countries that don’t matter”, according to a former secretary general of the transatlantic alliance.

George Robertson, a former Labour defence secretary who led Nato between 1999 and 2003, said Putin made it clear at their first meeting that he wanted Russia to be part of western Europe. “They wanted to be part of that secure, stable prosperous west that Russia was out of at the time,” he said.

The Labour peer recalled an early meeting with Putin, who became Russian president in 2000. “Putin said: ‘When are you going to invite us to join Nato?’ And [Robertson] said: ‘Well, we don’t invite people to join Nato, they apply to join Nato.’ And he said: ‘Well, we’re not standing in line with a lot of countries that don’t matter.’”

The account chimes with what Putin told the late David Frost in a BBC interview shortly before he was first inaugurated as Russian president more than 21 years ago. Putin told Frost he would not rule out joining Nato “if and when Russia’s views are taken into account as those of an equal partner”.

The United States pledged $4.5 billion as a share of a $24 billion international program to support economic reform in Russia, as well as additional credit guarantees and technical assistance.

At the Economic Summit Meeting in Tokyo on July 9-10, 1993, the leaders of the G-7 countries expressed their support for the reform process in Russia and Ukraine. The Summit's Economic Declaration called for a $3 billion Special Privatization and Restructuring Program, with a Support Implementation Group in Moscow. The United States announced a bilateral aid program of $1.8 billion for Russia and the former Soviet republics.