A popular argument from Russian trolls is that NATO promised not to expand, and then expanded anyway, and therefore Russia has the right to invade Ukraine.
It is claimed that Gorbachev was promised this verbally in a meeting.
Since Gorbachev only had an international role until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 such a promise must have been made up until 1991.
The arguments against are:
In short, Russia accepted in writing the expansion of NATO here:
https://www.nato.int/cps/su/natohq/official_texts_25468.htm
with the critical part being:
”
respect for sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of all states and their inherent right to choose the means to ensure their own security”
Former Warsaw Pact countries wanted to join NATO to avoid being invaded by Russia applied and the first invitation came in July 1997, that is after the Founding Act was signed.
The only deal on enlargement is the 1990
Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany. where NATO troops are not to be based in former East Germany - until a new German government decides otherwise.
en.wikisource.org
Before signing the Founding Act, Yeltsin wanted to have a promise of no-expansion from Bill Clinton, but this was denied. This is shown in the notes taken from the meeting, available in the Clinton Library.
Washington, D.C., October 2, 2018 – President Bill Clinton saw Russian leader Boris Yeltsin as indispensable for promoting American interests following the collapse of the Soviet Union, often prompting him to take controversial steps to ensure Yeltsin’s political survival, according to top-level...
nsarchive.gwu.edu
Instead it was agreed to postpone discussions until after critical elections.
Putin and Russian Trolls are lying their teeth out, when they claim that NATO promised - no expansion.
George Robertson recalls Russian president did not want to wait in line with ‘countries that don’t matter’
www.theguardian.com
Ex-Nato head says Putin wanted to join alliance early on in his rule
This article is more than 1 year old
George Robertson recalls Russian president did not want to wait in line with ‘countries that don’t matter’
Jennifer Rankin in Brussels
Thu 4 Nov 2021 05.00 GMT
Vladimir Putin wanted Russia to join Nato but did not want his country to have to go through the usual application process and stand in line “with a lot of countries that don’t matter”, according to a former secretary general of the transatlantic alliance.
George Robertson, a former Labour defence secretary who led Nato between 1999 and 2003, said Putin made it clear at their first meeting that he wanted Russia to be part of western Europe. “They wanted to be part of that secure, stable prosperous west that Russia was out of at the time,” he said.
The Labour peer recalled an early meeting with Putin, who became Russian president in 2000. “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.’”
The account chimes with what
Putin told the late David Frost in a BBC interview shortly before he was first inaugurated as Russian president more than 21 years ago. Putin told Frost he would not rule out joining Nato “if and when Russia’s views are taken into account as those of an equal partner”.
He told Frost it was hard for him to visualise Nato as an enemy. “Russia is part of the European culture. And I cannot imagine my own country in isolation from
Europe and what we often call the civilised world.”
Lord Robertson’s comments on the One Decision podcast, which is presented by Michelle Kosinski, a former CNN journalist, and Sir Richard Dearlove, a former head of M16, underscore how Putin’s worldview has evolved during his 21 years of unbroken rule of Russia.
After the Orange Revolution street protests in Ukraine in 2004, Putin became increasingly suspicious of the west, which he blamed for funding pro-democracy NGOs. He was further angered by Nato’s continuing expansion into central and eastern Europe: Romania, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Slovenia, Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania chose to join the alliance in 2004; Croatia and Albania followed in 2009. Georgia and Ukraine were promised membership in 2008 but have remained outside.
Robertson also recalled how he became the first and only Nato secretary general to invoke Nato’s collective defence clause, known as article five, in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.
Invoking article five was “a gamble” and it was far from a foregone conclusion that Nato members would reach for it after a terrorist attack, he said, noting it was “designed for an attack by the Soviet Union across the Fulda Gap in Germany”.
Some Nato allies were uneasy about invoking the collective defence clause to support the US, fearing it would give George W Bush’s administration a licence to invade Iraq. Robertson recalled one minister asking him: “‘Does this mean we’re giving them a blank check to invade Iraq?’ We said: ‘No, it’s not.’”
The Scottish former minister also revealed how the historic decision to invoke article five nearly went awry. The day after the 11 September attacks, Robertson was due to attend a routine meeting of EU foreign ministers. Anxious not to upstage the EU by calling for article five, he asked a couple of friendly foreign ministers – Jack Straw of the UK and Louis Michel of Belgium – to ask a question that gave him an opening to discuss it. But neither minister asked the question. “So I left, and afterwards there was a bit of bad blood and they said I should have announced it. But I said: ‘Well, I was going to announce it, but nobody asked the question.’”
After the 9/11 attacks, many Nato allies joined the US in invading Afghanistan, with Nato taking over the mission command in 2003.
Robertson said he urged the late US defence secretary
Donald Rumsfeld to keep US forces in Afghanistan alongside Nato allies after the Taliban’s military defeat. He warned Rumsfeld he would denounce any US withdrawal as unacceptable. “So he [Rumsfeld] got a bit upset at that point, and I said: ‘No, … you’re not going to say we did the cooking, you can clean up the dishes.’ I said: ‘That’s not it. We went in together, and we’re staying in together.’”
He was critical of the US’s chaotic withdrawal two months ago, but contended that the 20-year long mission of western military forces made a difference, despite the return of the Taliban. “We’ve left a legacy there that these theological hoodlums are not going to be easily unravelling. And I think that Afghanistan in the future will be a very different place.”
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