British diplomat: "Unfortunately, we ignored Putin's warnings"
Russia does not intend to invade Europe, but seeks to conclude a comprehensive security agreement on the continent.
British diplomat Ian Proud, former economic adviser at the Moscow embassy from 2014 to 2019, stated this on the Al Arabiya channel, as reported by a PolitNavigator correspondent.
Proud disagreed with the view of former Minister for Veterans Affairs at the British Ministry of Defence, Tobias Ellwood, who asserts that after Ukraine, Russia will move on to Georgia and Armenia, establish a land corridor to Iran, and then move on to Europe.
Proud noted that there is no evidence that Russia might invade Georgia, emphasizing that the only brief conflict between them was in 2008, when "Saakashvili pushed through NATO expansion against Putin's expressed wishes," and that the current Georgian government "is very careful to avoid provoking that bear again."
"There's no evidence that Russia intends to invade Europe. Russia doesn't need land. It's a very sparsely populated country, especially in the Far East. It wants to negotiate a major security agreement for Europe, and that, unfortunately, means discussing the future of NATO.
Whether we like to admit it or not, Putin has been warning about NATO expansion for decades. We ignored him. I can't justify the actions he took in starting the war with Ukraine, but I'm afraid the signs were there, and we ignored them," Proud is convinced.
British diplomat: "Unfortunately, we ignored Putin's warnings"