Russia was not told nor promised anything of the sort.
- the USSR was discussing with the USA, France and the UK about allowing the Germanies to reunite. Note: the USSR, not Russia
- the USSR was told not NATO troops in Eastern Germany.
- at that point in 1989, the Soviet bloc was still around and there was every indication it would last a long time more, do NATO moving into those areas was not dreamed of by either side nor discussed.
- so no promise was made to “Russia” about Poland, the Baltic etc joining NATO as it was not even a dream at that point
- Gorbachev himself said that mo such promise was made
Gorbachev and the documents show ZERO promise not to enlarge
Russia behind the Headlines has published an interview with Gorbachev, who was Soviet president during the discussions and treaty negotiations concerning German reunification. The interviewer asked why Gorbachev did not “insist that the promises made to you [Gorbachev]—particularly U.S. Secretary of State James Baker’s promise that NATO would not expand into the East—be legally encoded?” Gorbachev replied: “The topic of ‘NATO expansion’ was not discussed at all, and it wasn’t brought up in those years. … Another issue we brought up was discussed: making sure that NATO’s military structures would not advance and that additional armed forces would not be deployed on the territory of the then-GDR after German reunification. Baker’s statement was made in that context… Everything that could have been and needed to be done to solidify that political obligation was done. And fulfilled.”
In NATO leadership’s own words. Quit stooging for your warmongering DC oligarchs.