Quote (Saucisson6000 @ Mar 11 2022 08:41am)
It is one of the arguments of the Russians since the invasion of Ukraine: "NATO have betrayed Russia by violating its promise not to expand east."
Vladimir Putin himself has stated on February 1: "We had received promises that NATO would not move" not an inch "its infrastructure east, and that is well known."
This recurring accusation from the Russian President was denied by the specialists. There was no formal treaty guaranteeing the USSR that NATO will not expand
On the other hand, [Fra international relation specialist A.Zima] "There were discussions in February 1990 between the Secretary of State of the United States, James Baker and Mikhail Gorbachev, including the Statute of Reunited Germany." According to a declassified American memorandum, James Baker said, "If we maintain a presence in an Germany, which is part of NATO, there will be no extension of the jurisdiction of NATO and the forces of the NATO an inch east ".[COLOR=red But at the time, negotiations only focused on East Germany[/COLOR].
The issue of further enlargement east of NATO was not even imaginable, while the Eastern European countries were still part of the Warsaw Covenant that will only be dissolved in July 1991.
If promises have been made unilaterally during the discussions, no agreement has never been proposed or signed at the NATO level on this subject.
After the Democratic Republic of Germany in October 1990, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland had joined the organization in 1999.
----
Just to fix up USSR & tsars/authoritarians lovers.
The Russians had a verbal agreement with the US administration to not expand, and the administration kept that agreement. Because it was not codified in a treaty however, the next administration was not bound to keep the agreement. Billy Jeff gets to decide US policy upon his inauguration.
That being said, NATO should disband.