Replies

A good first step - first sign that Kellogg has any connection to reality. The bigger step will be CONVINCING Russia that our new position of not offering NATO to Ukraine will not be reversed with the next administration, if not sooner. There are ways to do that, but the Neocons and our European Puppets will not like it.

Amazing that another nothing burger turned out to be a root cause....

Even the old cold warrior knows we pushed too far with NATO expansion.

The real nugget is the US and four NATO members will vote against Ukraine membership... takes 30 of 30.

Vance is busy with EU Facist election stealing. Those opposed to NATO expansion are not going to color revolution or EU Courts election engineered during the Trump presidency.

I remain optimistic.
It is a true and sometimes unfortunate part of life that actions have consequences and that the past is often the best indicator of future behaviors.
Add the supercharged political atmosphere and how each side hurries to undo what the other has done previously, and a congress unwilling or unable to act in any more permanent fashion to codify policy and here we are.

NATO Partners for Peace
including Russia and Belarus (suspended):

BobL #2: "The bigger step will be CONVINCING Russia that our new position of not offering NATO to Ukraine will not be reversed with the next administration, if not sooner.
There are ways to do that, but the Neocons and our European Puppets will not like it."

jumper #4: "Even the old cold warrior knows we pushed too far with NATO expansion.
The real nugget is the US and four NATO members will vote against Ukraine membership... takes 30 of 30."

Engraved-on-His-hands #3: "Can we also get a written pledge that Russia will not advance westward?"

jumper #5: "Trumps Great Power Spheres of Influence cover your question."

In 1994, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and other former Soviet countries joined NATO's Partnership for Peace (PfP).
At the time PfP was considered both an alternative to NATO membership and a stepping-stone towards full membership.

From 1991 until 2014, Russia maintained good relations with NATO, including the 1997 NATO-Russia Founding Act and 2002 NATO-Russia Council.
During this time, Russia participated in annual NATO military exercises and served in NATO peacekeeping missions, as did Ukraine.

During the period of good NATO-Russia relations, twelve countries went from Partners-for-Peace to full membership:

1999 -- Chechia
1999 -- Hungary
1999 -- Poland
2004 -- Bulgaria
2004 -- Estonia
2004 -- Latvia
2004 -- Lithuania
2004 -- Romania
2004 -- Slovakia
2004 -- Slovenia
2009 -- Albania
2009 -- Croatia

In 2002, Ukraine's Pres. Kuchma publicly declared Ukraine's intention to join NATO.
Russia's response was given by Pres. Vladimir Putin himself, addressing the NATO Rome summit meeting:

"Ukraine is a sovereign state and has the right to choose the path to ensure its own security.
I don’t see anything unusual here in principle.
Or something that would spoil the relations between…
Or could possibly spoil relations between Russia and Ukraine.”

Putin's 2002 words were not those of a Russia violently opposed to NATO expansion.

By 2008 things had changed drastically, and Pres. Bush's support for Georgia & Ukraine NATO membership contributed to Putin's decisions to invade both Georgia (2008) and Ukraine (2014) -- thus creating territorial disputes which made NATO membership for those countries impossible.

Since 2008 the US has supported "eventual" Ukraine NATO full membership, but NATO rules make such membership impossible so long as there are territorial disputes with Russia.

In the meantime, Ukraine remains a NATO Partner for Peace and for nearly all practical purposes, a NATO member country, in the sense that NATO is doing everything it can to support Ukraine "for as long as it takes" to make a peace agreement with Russia.

Finally on the matter of "Great Power Spheres of Influence", those are academic words that Pres. Trump himself has never spoken.
Yes, professors in Universities can lecture on "Great Power Spheres of Influence", but Trump has not, ever.
What Trump does say, constantly and consistently, is that he wants to make deals & agreements -- bilateral & multilateral -- which always put America first and advantage Americans over other countries, with the goal of achieving Peace Through Strength.
Whether Trump's efforts result in "Great Power Spheres of Influence" is for University professors to decide, they are not Trump's stated intentions.

Spheres of Influence -- not 100% accurate: