According to Snyder, one of Yanukovich's immediate acts on being elected in 2010 was to conclude an agreement with Moscow giving Russia naval basing rights in Crimea until 2042.
If this is so, Ukraine COULD NOT BE ALLOWED JOIN NATO, and the whole "expanding NATO" meme that Russians and their sycophants have been pushing collapses into rubble.
Putin's Puppet Yanukovich:
Chad C. Mulligan: "If this is so, Ukraine COULD NOT BE ALLOWED JOIN NATO, and the whole "expanding NATO" meme that Russians and their sycophants have been pushing collapses into rubble."
In 2014, NATO was not the issue in the EuroMaidan Revolt, since at the time a vast majority of Ukrainians opposed NATO membership.
In 2010, Putin's stooge-traitor Viktor Yanukovich was elected Ukraine's president by 3.5% over Yulia Timoshenko.
The election was observed by over 3,000 international monitors and declared to be "transparent and honest".
Yanukovich soon began waging "law-fare" against Timoshenko, arresting and jailing her for three years on trumped up charges -- "law-fare" very equivalent to that waged on Donald Trump today.
Yulia Timoshenko, cleared and released from prison in 2014:
In 2010, Yanukovich announced that Ukraine would continue friendly relations as a NATO Partner For Peace and continue participating in NATO exercises and operations -- as did Russia at that time.
He also said there would be no movement towards NATO membership and that Ukraine could also seek strategic partnership with Russia.
"On 3 June 2010 the Ukrainian parliament passed a bill proposed by the President that excluded the goal of "integration into Euro-Atlantic security and NATO membership" from the country's national security strategy.[78]So, NATO was not "on the table" so long as Yanukovich ruled over Ukraine, and NATO was not the issue which caused the EuroMaidan Revolt that helped remove Yanukovich from power, providing the pretext for Vlad the Invader's 2014 military assaults in Ukraine.
The law precluded Ukraine's membership of any military bloc, but allowed for co-operation with alliances such as NATO.[79]"
In 2013 only around 20% of Ukrainians supported NATO membership.
Today, around 90% do.