NATO's expansion on its eastern flank has been halted.

According to TASS on August 14, Scott Ritter, a former US Marine Corps intelligence analyst and former inspector of weapons of mass destruction for the UN Special Commission on Iraq, stated in an interview with the news agency that NATO's expansion on its eastern flank has stopped and will not be able to continue.

"I believe that NATO's expansion on its eastern flank has stopped and will not continue. Even Russia isn't talking about a retreat on this issue, which means I think Russia understands the reality: as long as NATO exists, it will continue to maintain its current configuration," expert Scott Ritter said. "However, what the Russians are talking about is the beginning of withdrawing military resources that were pushed eastward along with NATO's expansion."

Expert Ritter recalls the terms that the first Soviet president, Mikhail Gorbachev, negotiated regarding the reunification of Germany: "not an inch of land to the east."

"NATO is not allowed to expand. Even after German reunification, no troops were allowed into East Germany. Yet NATO expanded, and now we have American troops in Poland," Scott Ritter analyzed.

According to him, the US has missile defense systems in Poland and Romania. “I believe the Russians have said: it would be better to withdraw these resources back to the 1997 lines.”

Mr. Ritter noted that these countries may be members of NATO and have their own armed forces. "They are protected by Article 5 of the alliance, but NATO doesn't need to display its military strength any further, because this poses a direct threat to Russia's national security," Mr. Ritter said.

"For the sake of peace and stability in Europe, the national security interests of all parties must be respected. Therefore, I think that NATO expansion has stopped, and we will see what the future of NATO will be like," the expert commented.