Putin could have said "Stop" at any point in the past, except for traditional Russian paranoia regarding the natural gateways into the Motherland - the eastern Ukrainian plain being one of them. We promised that NATO would never, ever seek to add territory to its east....and then added Chechia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Albania, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Finland, and Sweden, all but the last two formerly belonging the the Warsaw Pact. Why should Putin ever believe anything the US says? US politicians have fed every bad dream Putin ever had.
"By the end of 1990 East Germany was disbanded. By the end of 1991 so did Soviet Union.
Here comes the Question #1: is a promise made to the leader of a non-existing country regarding another non-existing country is still binding the countries that actually exist?
Will it be valid forever? In 2050? In 2150? In 2525? If a Grand Doge of the Venetian Republic made a promise to the Duke of Bamberg in, say, 1225 - is it still binding for contemporary Germany and Italy?
It gets even weirder with the Qustion #2. What Gorbachev promised in exchange? Don’t you find it odd that with all this talk about “what NATO promised”, hardly anyone talks about what Soviet Union promised?
Nothing? That would be really strange. As a leader of a crumbling empire, Gorbachev was not in position to make unilateral demands. The fact that we don’t talk about the reciprocal Soviet promise is yet another example of how good Russian propaganda is at controlling the narrative.
You can look for these promises yourselves, just google for Gorbachev’s speeches from 1988-1990. For instance, his speech at the United Nations, in particular the declaration that the central tenets of Soviet policy will be “freedom of choice” and “self-determination”.
It sounds like a cliché, but in the East we were listening with keen interest (that’s why I remember these promises). You must remember that while no country was ever forced to join NATO, it was exactly the opposite with the Soviet bloc.
No country volunteered. We were all “brought in” by force and kept against our will."
Finland and Sweden only joined after Putin's invasion of Ukraine. They had both put off joining for decades until Putin forced their hand. Until then, they were happy to be buffer states. Stop trying to rewrite history- your criticism also inconveniently applies to the imperialist, expansionist Russian Federation. All empires die for the same reason, the expansion necessary for the empire to exist becomes too difficult and expensive, and maintaining the status quo therefore becomes impossible. The RF will fail the day after Putin dies, which could be any day now
Putin could have said "Stop" at any point in the past, except for traditional Russian paranoia regarding the natural gateways into the Motherland - the eastern Ukrainian plain being one of them. We promised that NATO would never, ever seek to add territory to its east....and then added Chechia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Albania, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Finland, and Sweden, all but the last two formerly belonging the the Warsaw Pact. Why should Putin ever believe anything the US says? US politicians have fed every bad dream Putin ever had.
Those countries had every right to apply for NATO membership.
Let's see what a citizen of one of them has to say on the matter.
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"By the end of 1990 East Germany was disbanded. By the end of 1991 so did Soviet Union.
Here comes the Question #1: is a promise made to the leader of a non-existing country regarding another non-existing country is still binding the countries that actually exist?
Will it be valid forever? In 2050? In 2150? In 2525? If a Grand Doge of the Venetian Republic made a promise to the Duke of Bamberg in, say, 1225 - is it still binding for contemporary Germany and Italy?
It gets even weirder with the Qustion #2. What Gorbachev promised in exchange? Don’t you find it odd that with all this talk about “what NATO promised”, hardly anyone talks about what Soviet Union promised?
Nothing? That would be really strange. As a leader of a crumbling empire, Gorbachev was not in position to make unilateral demands. The fact that we don’t talk about the reciprocal Soviet promise is yet another example of how good Russian propaganda is at controlling the narrative.
You can look for these promises yourselves, just google for Gorbachev’s speeches from 1988-1990. For instance, his speech at the United Nations, in particular the declaration that the central tenets of Soviet policy will be “freedom of choice” and “self-determination”.
It sounds like a cliché, but in the East we were listening with keen interest (that’s why I remember these promises). You must remember that while no country was ever forced to join NATO, it was exactly the opposite with the Soviet bloc.
No country volunteered. We were all “brought in” by force and kept against our will."
https://eastsplaining.substack.com/p/about-the-nato-promise-to-gorbachev
Finland and Sweden only joined after Putin's invasion of Ukraine. They had both put off joining for decades until Putin forced their hand. Until then, they were happy to be buffer states. Stop trying to rewrite history- your criticism also inconveniently applies to the imperialist, expansionist Russian Federation. All empires die for the same reason, the expansion necessary for the empire to exist becomes too difficult and expensive, and maintaining the status quo therefore becomes impossible. The RF will fail the day after Putin dies, which could be any day now