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Putin did ask to join NATO in early 2000s, was laughed out of the room.

"ask" is quite overstating the case. There were some informal conversations between individuals.

Rightly so. Dictatorships have no place in modern NATO.

Yeltsin named Putin as his successor, the writing was on the wall for much longer, besides little details such as the Chechen war.

Putin was overall very open to the West early on: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8X7Ng75e5gQ