Ukraine (Mod Note & Threadbanned Users in OP)

The only partnership Ukraine are or were in with NATO was the European Partnership for peace, of which Russia and Ireland are also partners. By your reakoning Russia should invade Ireland and declare war on itself. But following the twisted garbage logic you spew here that does seem reasonable.

Keeping lies straight is impossible when you copy paste 500 word essays not of your own making from different sources.

In May 2002 Putin said (here)

that Ukraine was entitled to decide on its own whether to join NATO and that he did not see such a decision as one that would “cloud” Russian-Ukrainian relations.

Further, Russia signed the NATO-Russia Founding Act, pledging to uphold "respect for sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of all states and their inherent right to choose the means to ensure their own security".

As regards NATO membership, a country which is subject to partial occupation cannot join NATO - because that instantly triggers article 5 and a war between the US, Western Europe & Russia.

So no, after 2014 Ukraine could never join NATO - neither could Moldova nor Georgia (at least until after they fully expelled Russia).

Hence, fear of NATO cannot be an explanation for the 2022 Russian invasion.

>>Hence, fear of NATO cannot be an explanation for the 2022 Russian invasion.

Literally from your own link:

But President Putin stressed that Russia’s position on the expansion of the bloc remained unchanged.

If you happen to dig a bit more:

For a long time, Russia has opposed the eastward expansion of NATO. After the fall of the Soviet Union and the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact, Russian President Boris Yeltsin launched a transition to a market economy. The reforms, however, also brought high unemployment, inflation, and crippled the Russian military. Nonetheless, Washington went ahead with expanding its military alliance to include former Soviet states. Yeltsin's objections, including letters of protest to the Clinton administration and to leaders of France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, were easily ignored, given the other difficulties Russia was already facing.[197] As NATO's expansion continued under the U.S. president George W. Bush, Russia's opposition would also continue under Vladimir Putin, who would eventually intervene in Georgia and Crimea.[197] While not excusing Russia's acts of aggression, a number of Western scholars and officials have long voiced concerns that Russia would view NATO's expansion as unfriendly at best, and a threat to its security at worst, especially if the alliance ends up surrounding the country in the most ambitious version of its expansion plans. The disregard for Russia's concerns and warnings, such as Yeltsin's letters and Putin's statement at the 2007 Munich security conference, has been described as a policy and strategic blunder.[198]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia%E2%80%93NATO_relations#Opposition_to_NATO's_enlargement

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/feb/28/nato-expansion-war-russia-ukraine

Even as recently as 2019, NATO was described as "brain-dead" - https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-50335257

Russia signed both the Russia-NATO founding act and the Budapest agreement - the latter specifically with Ukraine.

These are international treaties.

The Founding Act expressly permits sovereign states of Europe (of which Ukraine is one) to make its own security arrangements e.g. join NATO

The Budapest Agreement implicitly permit Ukraine to do so.

Russia did not repudiate those agreements when Putin came to power. Why not, if Ukrainian and Georgian membership of NATO were red lines.

This is how Russia acts. Signs agreements. Expects everyone else to abide by them yet they can play by their own rules.

It’s not (sustainable for the Russian economy). But then we all knew that.

The effect that sanctions are having on the Russian economy is no less spectacular than that of Ukrainian SoF’s recent holiday trip to a certain Crimean airbase. It’s just not as loud and colourful to observe.

Agreed with 1 exception of a country west of its border, Belarus. I was not aware Russia had decriminalised Domestic Abuse but it does not surprise me. However, oddly people seem to be surprised when I inform them that Belarus re-introduced Serfdom a decade ago. Effectively about 1.5 million Belarusians are the property of state collective farms. It is more than evident that there are 2 countries in Europe in a race to to outdo each other in a journey back to the middle ages.

Thanks for that. I was not aware of that statement ever being made. It was however made at a time when even Russia was talking about joining NATO as at that point the world believed that cold war politics were over and the new mutual enemy for East & West was militant Islamic fundamentalism. Subsequent years eroded this loved up NATO/Russo atmosphere as the US realised that Putin was not Yeltsin and would never open up the Russian economy to US ownership of its assets and he became someone to be removed. The US saw the weakness in the Russian economy and the instability in its structures and wrongly assumed that Putin would be overthrown eventually with a coloured revolution of the type that the US were fond of orchestrating. It never happened as we all know.

Obviously if Russia were in the process of joining NATO there would have been no objection to Ukraine joining as NATO wasn't a security threat to Russia.

"So no, after 2014 Ukraine could never join NATO - neither could Moldova nor Georgia (at least until after they fully expelled Russia)"

Then why was there a recommitment in November 2021 of both Ukraine and the US with the "U.S. Ukraine Charter on Strategic Partnership" which "affirmed that Ukraine will become a member of NATO."? There was also the buildup of the Ukrainian army with financial and military support from the US since 2014 that made it obvious that they were going to try and retake Crimea and the Donbass at some point.

Excellent interview. Great to hear a voice of reason and someone speak the truth. Surprised CNN aired this.