Well, I became president in 2000. I thought that this was it, the issue of Yugoslavia was over, we needed to try to restore relations, and let's open this door that Russia is still trying to pass.

Axar.az reports that Russian President Vladimir Putin said this in an interview with American journalist Tucker Carlson.

Vladimir Putin said Bill Clinton had misled him over Russia’s potential membership of NATO two decades ago. He said he asked the outgoing President Clinton if his country could join the alliance when he visited the Kremlin in 2000. He claimed Clinton initially suggested he believed that would be possible, before rowing back on the statement later that same evening.

“I asked him: ‘Bill, do you think if Russia asked to join NATO, do you think it would happen?’ Suddenly he said, ‘You know, it’s interesting. I think so. But in the evening, when we met for dinner, he said: ‘You know, I’ve talked to my team, no, it’s not possible now’.”