Putin's Reelection Confirms Russia Is 'Authoritarian Society,' Says NATO Chief

TBILISI -- NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Russia's presidential election was "not free nor fair" and only confirms that Russia is "an authoritarian society."

In an interview with RFE/RL on March 18 in Tbilisi on the second day of a trip to the South Caucasus, Stoltenberg said the election that handed President Vladimir Putin a fifth term was "rigged and, of course, no surprise." Stoltenberg also said Moscow's attempt to conduct the vote in occupied territories of Ukraine was a violation of international law.

The NATO secretary-general said Putin incorrectly stated in his victory speech that NATO troops are in Ukraine. NATO allies have provided training but "are not planning any military presence on the ground."

Stoltenberg also reiterated that NATO has an open-door policy for countries that seek membership and denied that the alliance is "expanding aggressively eastward," which was one of the justifications Putin used for launching Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Countries in Eastern Europe have been told that if they meet NATO standards and are democratic societies, then NATO membership is open to them, he said.

"We respect if you don't want NATO membership. But of course, we also respect if you want NATO membership," he said, adding that those countries cannot "live in a world where Moscow decides what [its] neighbors can do or not do."

Stoltenberg would not say whether Ukraine's bid to join NATO would be granted during the NATO summit in Washington in July, but he said he expects the alliance to "make decisions that will move Ukraine even closer to NATO," including steps to ensure that Ukraine's military is "fully operable" with NATO and to further integrate political cooperation.

"First of all, we are implementing what we have already agreed, but I also expect new decisions," he said.

Asked whether Georgia's aspirations to join NATO would advance during the summit, Stoltenberg said he could not "prejudge or preempt" the summit's outcome.

"I think the most important thing we can do is to ensure that we help [Georgia] to implement the necessary reforms on transparency, on fighting corruption, on strengthening a rule of law in institutions," he said.

For the first time Stoltenberg said Georgia and Ukraine "have separate and independent responsibilities" when it comes to their NATO applications, indicating a decoupling of the two countries' bids.

"They are at different levels in different ways," he said, implying that Ukraine's application is more urgent because it is currently fighting Russian forces.

"I'm not saying that Ukraine is ahead of Georgia in all fields," he said. "There are individual assessments, there are individual efforts to support Georgia and to support Ukraine, and there will be individual separate decisions."

Asked about the recent requests for protection from Moscow by separatists in the breakaway Transdniester region of Moldova and in Georgia's breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, the NATO chief admitted that the alliance wouldn't be able to offer much other than to condemn the presence of Russian forces and to pressure Russia to revoke its recognition of these territories as separate states.

Stoltenberg, who has been urging NATO members to provide Kyiv with badly needed ammunition and military equipment, also acknowledged that international support for the Ukrainian military has not remained at the same high level as it was at the beginning of the war, noting that a major aid package from the United States has stalled in Congress.

He said he still expects the United States to agree to support Ukraine because a majority in the U.S. Congress supports more aid for Ukraine and because it is in the security interest of the United States to do so.