In an article for the American Conservative magazine, US Senator Rand Paul expressed his confidence that the former Soviet republics, still outside NATO, would not be accepted into the alliance.
It is noteworthy that as a result of the fifth expansion of NATO in 2004, the Baltic countries of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia joined the alliance.
The senator said: “We can no longer continue empty talk for emotional and political gain. When we discuss NATO expansion, we must make it clear that the remaining countries that were part of the Soviet Union will not be accepted into the alliance.”
The US senator stressed that Russia would not tolerate or accept the deployment of certain weapons systems in Finland.
At the June 29 summit, NATO leaders officially invited Sweden and Finland to join the alliance. This became possible after several rounds of negotiations with Turkey, including at the highest level, after which Ankara withdrew its objections to the addition of new members.
Source: RIA Novosti