Was there an alternative?
Some say yes. Sarotte argues Washington won its power battle over enlargement, but in a way that led to confrontation, not cooperation, with Moscow.
Russia throughout presented itself as a potential Nato member, but the US always saw this as a fantasy that would paralyse the alliance. The US often preferred to deflect rather than reject. The US administration in 1993 could have delayed Nato expansion, but supporters who saw it as a democratic right of the former Warsaw Pact countries defeated those who argued it would weaken both Russian support for arms control and the forces of reform inside Russia.
Was Russia in a true position to negotiate?
Russia’s economy and politics were in ruins. “Not One Inch” details how Russian openness to Nato’s expansion often turned on the level of financial support provided by the US or Germany, support neither side described as bribes. Such were the levels of Russian corruption that much of this money just went missing as soon as it was transferred.
FROM
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/12/russias-belief-in-nato-betrayal-and-why-it-matters-today
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