Russia also wanted to establish cordial relations of friendship with the United States. In 2000, Putin, in a detail that he says he publicly mentions only now, asked Bill Clinton how would US react if Russia asked to join NATO. He was, Putin says, taken aback by Clinton’s very reserved reaction. The more time passed, the more evident it became to Putin that the United States treated Russia as an enemy: the official US military plans say so. In these plans Ukraine is the spring-board for US ability to military threaten Russia. Americans have renovated a number of Ukrainian airports, and with new weapons, including tactical nuclear arms, the entire Russian territory up to the Urals, and apparently in the near future, even beyond the Urals is an easy target for American weaponry. Such systems can deliver Tomahawk rockets against Moscow in 35 minutes and hyper- sound missiles in five minutes.