"In 2004 the Baltic states, Bulgaria and Romania formally joined NATO, as did Slovakia and Slovenia. Soon afterwards, the American president, George W. Bush (2001–9), openly mooted Ukraine and Georgia also joining, which would advance NATO to Russia’s southern frontier. Both Germany and France challenged the wisdom of such blatant provocation. Putin repeated Yeltsin’s warning that any NATO advance to the frontier ‘would be taken in Russia as a direct threat to the security of our country’. In the summer of 2008 he reacted by invading Georgia’s Russian-speaking northern provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Europe’s only response was for France’s president, Nicolas Sarkozy, to negotiate a ceasefire."