Kremlin responds to Hillary Clinton blaming Putin for NATO expansion

Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton played with concepts when she said that NATO was expanding because of Russian President Putin, Kremlin official spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

"We know Mrs. Clinton for her attempts to turn everything upside down and play with concepts,” Peskov said commenting on Hillary Clinton's remarks. The former US Secretary of State forgot to mention numerous waves of NATO expansion, Peskov added.

Peskov also referred to the infamous reset button incident from 2009. 

In 2009, the meeting between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and then US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Geneva took an awkward turn when Clinton presented her Russian counterpart with the symbolic “reset button” that was supposed to reset the relations between Russia and the USA.

However, the American side made a mistake in the translation and wrote the Russian word 'peregruzka' instead of 'perezagruzka' on the button ('peregruzka' means 'overload'). Lavrov paid attention to the mistake right away, the two officials laughed and eventually pressed the button together. 

Peskov said that Clinton's mistake spoke for itself. 

Western countries ignored "persistent proposals from President Putin” to discuss the expansion of the alliance and sign the agreement that Russia had prepared.

The reason for the special military operation to start is obvious, the Kremlin spokesman said.

Speaking at the State Department for the unveiling of her official portrait, Clinton needled Russian President Putin for the enlargement of the North Atlantic Alliance.

"Defending democracy in Ukraine, expanding NATO — just as an aside, too bad Vladimir, you brought it on yourself," she said, prompting laughter and applause, Reuters reports. "We always said, 'people are not forced to join NATO. People choose and want to join NATO,'" she added.