My good old friend lifted once again the lid on secrecy of NATO's very aggressive stance on Russia ... the frontier expanding to within minutes of historic capital Moscow and its cultural treasures.

"Not my finest hour"

De Hoop Scheffer is still often reminded of the messy NATO summit of April 2008 that took place under his leadership in the Romanian capital Bucharest, in the 'disfigured palace' of the former dictator Ceausescu ('that didn't help either, in terms of atmosphere').

The secretary general from the Netherlands was then caught between US President George Bush Jr., who wanted Georgia and Ukraine to join NATO quickly, and German and French leaders Merkel and Sarkozy, who were much more reserved. Feverish last-minute consultations were needed.

The compromise text that emerged was that Georgia and Ukraine were presented with NATO membership, like a juicy sausage, but without a concrete timeline. That promise was unacceptable to President Putin (also present in Bucharest) and he let it be known: De Hoop Scheffer was given the full blow.

"Not my finest hour", he now calls the NATO summit. "Bush went against the advice of three of his top advisers. They had said to me beforehand: 'Jaap, we are not going to go to war with Russia over Ukraine with NATO'. My impression is that Bush has been talked down by his Vice President Dick Cheney.

"I had a difficult conversation with Putin anyway. It started with him adding, say, biting me, "I'd rather talk to your wife than to you." The night before, at dinner, he'd been sitting next to my wife. I don't know if he meant it as a joke.

"Looking back at that commitment to Georgia and Ukraine, it was - but I've said it before - an unlucky decision. I say that Putin had seized every argument and every text to continue his pursuit of 'I want my empire back'. But here he was presented with a wonderful opportunity.

"It doesn't sit well with me, if I'm honest. It is true that the heads of state and government leaders of NATO are the boss. But as secretary general you are the oil man and the mediator, that is also in my DNA. Usually you reach agreement on the text in the run-up to such a summit. If that doesn't work, then you're really disappointed. It was a really bad experience afterwards.

"I also remember that Putin already spoke very derogatoryly about Ukraine at the time. During the NATO-Russia Council, which immediately followed that NATO summit, he talked about 'just a territory', an insignificant piece of land. Chancellor Merkel then immediately gave him cotton. Although she was against far-reaching commitments to Ukraine, she also took a hard line against Putin when he said derogatory things about that country."

Thus NATO playbook was ready for years ... it was a matter of pulling the trigger ... or rather crossing the red lines of national security of Russia [VIDEO] and lean back for events to be rolled out.

From my diary ...

NATO War Planning -- In 2021 Ukraine

'Sapere aude'