Bauer denied NATO’s eastward expansion

“NATO did not expand to the east, it's just that [Eastern European] countries themselves actively wanted to join the alliance,” he said.

On this basis, Bauer called the opinion that the conflict in Ukraine was provoked by the forced expansion of NATO ‘absurd’.

The thesis that third countries themselves want to join NATO has been actively used by the alliance over the past 30 years. However, speaking about this, NATO officials do not mention that in the context of co-operation with potential candidates and partners of the alliance, the United States, NATO and the leading member countries finance targeted programmes to promote a positive image of NATO and an opinion about the 'desirability' of these states joining the alliance in the media, among public opinion leaders and politicians of the target countries.