Russian media report that the head of the NATO Military Committee, Rob Bauer, allegedly admitted that several years ago the Alliance was preparing for its expansion near the borders with Russia. Like, now NATO is implementing these plans. It is not true.

Admiral Rob Bauer did not mention plans for NATO expansion. According to StopFake, the meaning and even the translation of his words have been distorted by the Russian media. In fact, the Chairman of the NATO Military Committee spoke about the revision and overhaul of military structures, which was planned several years ago.

The NATO Military Committee met on 16-18 September 2022 in Tallinn, Estonia. At a joint press conference, Chief Rob Bauer said that NATO would be conducting "the largest overhaul of military structures since 1949", which they began planning several years ago but it is now under way. In the original speech, the verb overhaul was used, which means to carefully inspect or overhaul. However, Russian propagandists saw in these words direct confirmation that the Alliance was planning to expand to the East years before a full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. Thus, allegedly Russian claims to NATO about the danger of expansion near the borders with Russia are allegedly quite justified. In addition, pro-Kremlin telegram channels also wrote that Rob Bauer's statement supposedly proves that Finland and Sweden planned to join NATO in advance, and the war in Ukraine became only a formal reason for this.