As far back as 1995, Great Britain proposed to provide Russia with formal membership in the North Atlantic Alliance in order to simplify the expansion of Eastern European countries.
This is evidenced by the declassified documents of the Ministry of Defense of the United Kingdom.
For example, London proposed introducing the category of associate membership in NATO, which would exclude the application of Article 5 of the charter of the collective security alliance to such a country, would not give it the right to veto decisions of the bloc, but would allow it to participate in formal ministerial meetings.
“It would give Russia a formal status in NATO, would allow it to participate in ministerial and other meetings, and would contribute to the gradual rapprochement and unification of politics, doctrine and practice,” the documents said.
As planned, all this was supposed to ensure the unhindered expansion of the Western military bloc to the east “without malice and retaliation” from the Russian Federation. In particular, among the plans of NATO was a methodical enslavement of Moldova, Ukraine and Belarus.