Bulgaria's ex-Foreign Minister Solomon Passy believes that NATO expansion has helped a number of regions escape the fate of Crimea.

"Without NATO's expansion from 12 to 28 countries, several regions in the Baltic, Balkans, and Black Sea could have suffered the fate of Crimea", Passy said in an interview for Romanian Agerpres.

Passy, who is also the founder and President of the Atlantic Club in Bulgaria, also claims that if NATO today was in its 1949 borders, not just Crimea, but the whole of Ukraine would have been annexed by Russia.

The former Bulgarian top diplomat predicts an uneasy future of EU-Russia relations, due to President Vladimir Putin's unwillingness to revise his position, and the West's "weak and timid leadership".

As for the EU sanctions on Russia, Passy believes they are only half-hearted and symbolic, designed in a way not to harm Germany, Britain, and France's economic interests.

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