Submission Statement: “The Kremlin has accomplished something that even its most fervent propagandists might have considered impossible: Western figures now echo its untruths.” Maciej Bukowski, LL.M. argues that the narrative claiming NATO’s eastward expansion provoked Russia’s war against Ukraine is a persistent falsehood propagated by Moscow and increasingly echoed by Western figures. Bukowski explains that no binding promise was made regarding NATO expansion during US-Soviet negotiations in 1990, and highlights that the nations seeking NATO membership did so for their security, not as pawns of the West.
I am always aghast when I hear about “NATO expansion.”
NATO needs to be invited.
Usually it is invited by countries that are worried about being invaded. I wonder why that would be a driving force.
This makes sense because what Russia really wanted was access to warm water ports and natural resources.
Russian port Arkhangelsk and Vladivostok are impinged by ice. Russia’s naval base in Tartus Syria is a big reason why they are still involved in Syrian politics.
Sevastopol in Crimea is ice free and allows access to world markets and oceans. Donbas is rich in natural resources and anyway had large ethnic Russian population.
The “NATO expansion theory” is a carefully crafted narrative that a lot of people bought.
*”Not One Inch: America, Russia, and the Making of Post-Cold War Stalemate”* by M.E. Sarotte is an excellent book that lays this all out, wide open.
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Submission Statement: “The Kremlin has accomplished something that even its most fervent propagandists might have considered impossible: Western figures now echo its untruths.” Maciej Bukowski, LL.M. argues that the narrative claiming NATO’s eastward expansion provoked Russia’s war against Ukraine is a persistent falsehood propagated by Moscow and increasingly echoed by Western figures. Bukowski explains that no binding promise was made regarding NATO expansion during US-Soviet negotiations in 1990, and highlights that the nations seeking NATO membership did so for their security, not as pawns of the West.
I am always aghast when I hear about “NATO expansion.”
NATO needs to be invited.
Usually it is invited by countries that are worried about being invaded. I wonder why that would be a driving force.
This makes sense because what Russia really wanted was access to warm water ports and natural resources.
Russian port Arkhangelsk and Vladivostok are impinged by ice. Russia’s naval base in Tartus Syria is a big reason why they are still involved in Syrian politics.
Sevastopol in Crimea is ice free and allows access to world markets and oceans. Donbas is rich in natural resources and anyway had large ethnic Russian population.
The “NATO expansion theory” is a carefully crafted narrative that a lot of people bought.
*”Not One Inch: America, Russia, and the Making of Post-Cold War Stalemate”* by M.E. Sarotte is an excellent book that lays this all out, wide open.
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