RAPID DETERIORATION (2014-2022)

The Ukrainian crisis that broke out in 2014 became the biggest turning point in relations between Russia and NATO, said the expert, noting that the two sides broke off security cooperation and turned to substantive military confrontation.

NATO began to provide military assistance to Ukraine after the crisis, including sending military advisers and instructors. At the Warsaw Summit in 2016, NATO nations decided to have multinational battalions stationed in the three Baltic states and Poland.

Meanwhile, the dispute between the United States and Russia over the implementation of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty has also intensified, as the two sides accused each other of violating the historic arms control deal.

In 2019, the United States officially announced its withdrawal from the INF Treaty.

With Russia and NATO facing full-scale confrontation and the United States encouraging Ukraine to join NATO, Russia proposed three security dialogues with the United States, NATO and the OSCE at the end of last year, all of which were fruitless, Kang said.

On Feb. 24, the Russian army launched a special military operation in Ukraine, which, said Kang, marked the beginning of the largest armed conflict in the region since World War II.

In general, Kang said, the Russian elites hoped to integrate the country into the Western security community more than once, while the United States and NATO chose to turn Moscow down.

Driven by ideology and pushed by the military-industrial complex, Washington turned a blind eye to the repeated opposition from the domestic strategic community and from Russia. It pushed NATO eastward again and again, and instigated "color revolutions" around Russia repeatedly, forcing Russia into the corner, Kang said.