NATO Chief Admits NATO Expansion Was Key to Russian Invasion of Ukraine — Jeffrey D. Sachs
www.jeffsachs.org
The continuing U.S. obsession with NATO enlargement is profoundly irresponsible and hypocritical. And now Ukrainians are paying a terrible price.

Who would have though that our dear Jens Stoltenberg is a Putin apologist; quote:

“The background was that President Putin declared in the autumn of 2021, and actually sent a draft treaty that they wanted NATO to sign, to promise no more NATO enlargement. That was what he sent us. And was a pre-condition to not invade Ukraine. Of course, we didn’t sign that.

The opposite happened. He wanted us to sign that promise, never to enlarge NATO. He wanted us to remove our military infrastructure in all Allies that have joined NATO since 1997, meaning half of NATO, all the Central and Eastern Europe, we should remove NATO from that part of our Alliance, introducing some kind of B, or second-class membership. We rejected that.

So, he went to war to prevent NATO, more NATO, close to his borders. He has got the exact opposite.”

    • Deceptichum@kbin.social
      62·
      8 months ago

      1. Putin said: ‘When are you going to invite us to join Nato?’ And [Robertson] said: ‘Well, we don’t invite people to join Nato, they apply to join Nato.’ And he said: ‘Well, we’re not standing in line with a lot of countries that don’t matter.’”

      So no, other than a throw away comment they made no move whatsoever to join NATO.

      1. That’s the Soviet Union.

      2. Another throwaway comment and it even says that Clinton had no issue if they wanted to join NATO

      Swing and a miss my friend.

      • freagle
        23·
        8 months ago

        https://www.nato.int/acad/fellow/98-00/davydov.pdf

        In December 1991 Russia’s deputy prime-minister Gennady Burbulis visited NATO’s headquarters and was received by the Secretary General of the Alliance Manfred Worner. Among the problems they discussed was the point concerning Russia’s entry into NATO. This idea was supported then by vice-president Alexander Rutskoy, head of the government Egor Gaidar, Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrei Kozyrev.

        It’s a far more complex situation than a throwaway comment once. Even still, you need to explain why they rejected the Soviet Union, as your conjecture is that NATO has no reason not to accept new members.

        • Deceptichum@kbin.social
          31·
          8 months ago

          So once again Russia did not ever apply to join NATO.

          Secondly I don’t need to explain shit. I accept they rejected the Soviets and no one is surprised that it didn’t happen during the bloody Cold War.

          • freagle
            25·
            8 months ago

            Then you don’t understand security.

            Security is when countries collaborate. Insecurity is when countries compete.

            The idea that not bringing in Russia is because of the cold war makes it sound like you think the military leaders who just fought 2 world wars believe that they just need to build high castle walls and then they will be secure. The world wars showed that security is a relationship between and among nations. The USSR wanted to do anything possible to avoid wars, but the West wasn’t interested in security, they were interested in competition.

            This is why they did not admit the USSR into NATO and why they don’t wish to entertain Russian entrance into NATO despite such an arrangement being capable of reducing the chance of nuclear war.

            It’s because NATO isn’t a security structure, it’s a dominance structure.