Comment by n4r9
7 months ago
> it's a response to NATO continually breaking promises
I hear this a lot, but when I look into it all I can find is Putin claiming that the US Secretary of State assured Gorbachev in 1990 that “NATO will not move one inch further east.” Gorbachev himself has stated that this quotation is taken out of context, and refers specifically to the movement of military structures within East Germany.
Did NATO put any pledges in writing, not to expand into Eastern Europe? It would be odd if they did, because an open door policy is a founding principle of NATO.
Did NATO put any pledges in writing, not to expand into Eastern Europe?
Indeed these verbal "pledges", whatever they were supposed to mean at the time, were never put into writing (that is, in treaty form).
Which is where the whole "NATO broke its promises" thread starts to unravel.
Meanwhile, in 1997 there was an actual treaty between the US and Russia which is widely seen as in effect ratifying the partial NATO expansion at the time (to PL, CZ, HU). Which makes the "not one inch" line even further moot.