Russia's claims that the West has violated its promises not to expand NATO to the east have been confirmed. According to Der Spiegel, a document from 1991 was discovered in the National Archives of Great Britain, in which representatives of Western countries declared that such a step was unacceptable.
The document was discovered by Boston University professor Joshua Shifrinson. According to the publication, before it was kept under the heading "secret". It was drawn up following a meeting of representatives of the foreign affairs agencies of the United States, Great Britain, France and F in Bonn on March 6, 1991. They discussed the issue of the security of the states of Eastern Europe and admitted that the membership of these countries in NATO was "unacceptable."
The document also notes that during the negotiations between F, the GDR, the USA, the USSR, Great Britain and France, representatives of the West made it clear that NATO would not expand, and the alliance could not offer membership to Poland and other countries of Eastern Europe.
"We made it clear to the Soviet Union in the 2 plus 4 talks, as well as in other negotiations, that we did not intend to benefit from the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Eastern Europe. NATO should not expand to the East either formally or unofficially," Der Spiegel quoted the representative as saying. USA by Raymond Seitz from the same document.
Thus, the words of NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg that the North Atlantic Alliance "never promised not to expand" were refuted. It is noteworthy that he said these words in an interview with the same publication Der Spiegel.
Assurances about the non-expansion of NATO were given in exchange for the consent of the USSR to the reunification of Germany. And it was F, a few years later, who became the "godfather" of the first expansion of the alliance to the east, including Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic.
Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin said more than once that the Soviet Union was promised that NATO would not move east. During a big press conference in December 2021, he said in part:
“We made it clear that NATO’s further movement to the East is unacceptable. But what’s incomprehensible here? Have we come to the borders of the United States or the borders of Great Britain?” Putin noted. is this a redundant requirement, not to put any shock systems at our house?"
For Russia, he concluded, what matters is not the course of the negotiations, but the result. According to the president, our country was "swindled, simply impudently deceived" when in the 1990s they assured that they would not advance NATO to the East. The result of the deception is "five waves of NATO expansion, and now corresponding systems are appearing in Romania and Poland."
"You demand some kind of guarantees from me," he turned rather not to the journalist, but to the Western authorities. "No, it is you who must give us guarantees, you - and immediately, now, and not chatter about it for decades."
bbabo.Net