Let's debunk your second statement first - NATO did NOT say "thy would not further encroach on Russia" --> That is a flat out lie
Russia was not told nor promised about any “moving east of Germany”: - 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 https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2014/11/06/did-nato-promise-not-to-enlarge-gorbachev-says-no/ 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.”
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And countries like Estonia, Latvia -- just like Finland in 2022 -- felt threatened by Putin's actions and requested to join NATO
Ukraine was not joining NATO - it had requested in 2008 along side Georgia and that request was rejected by Germany and France "for fear of provoking Russia" (i.e. exactly what you are accusing the USA of today) -- note, it was rejected in 2008
6 weeks later Putin invaded Georgia
The message is clear - countries that join the defensive alliance NATO are not invaded by Putin
countries that AREN'T in NATO are open to Putin invading them (Georgia, Ukraine) or reducing them to vassaldom (Belarus, Central Asian states)
Nice try. You tell half truths, or simply misleading lies.
nice try rewriting an “understanding” that NATO wouldn’t move east. As far as Crimea... that was because the Russians need a port that doesn’t freeze up.
Is Russian armed forces basically laying waste to Ukraine... yup.
Is that bad? yes
Could it have been avoided...? yes
Can it be stopped? yes
But there’s this little problem of bio-weapons labs, money laundering, bribing American officials and their families that we have to deal with.... so instead, we see Ukraine follow the path of Syria, Lebanon,Iraq, Afghanistan, and all the other little democracies we tried to “help”... and sell weapons to ... and get their natural resources for our corporations. Whichever country holds or controls Odessa and the Crimea has a lot of natural gas and oil just waiting to be brought to the surface. I suppose if the Russian gave the “big guy” 10%...then all would be good.
Do yourself a favor and look up where the biggest uranium mines are...hint. Namibia and Khazikstan are up there...
Look and see how much bauxite mining and rare earth minerals there are in Vietnam. Bauxite is used to make aluminum.
We’ll be fighting for Nigerian, Ghana, and Zimbabwe democracies soon for all the Lithium to be mined....
We don’t owe the Ukrainians sh#t.
The Europeans should be paying for all this crap and maybe we can use a couple of the BILLIONS of dollars we gave the Ukrainian military.. to pay our troops so they don’t have to be on food stamps, update their living quarters... maybe buy some equipment for OUR MEN....
or just MAYBE..... pay for housing for our wounded warriors so that we don’t have to watch disfigured and injured veterans holding out a tin cup on tv commercials to get a f@#king HOUSE to live in... Maybe we need to take care of our soldiers.