Photo: © Kremlin.ru, CC BY 4.0
Russian President Vladimir Putin argues that the trigger for the current war between Russia and Ukraine is the threat of NATO expansion toward the East. He argues that this represents a direct threat to the Russian Federation. Therefore, Russia’s attack on Ukraine is an act of self-defense in his mind.
However, the facts tell a different story.
NATO members shared borders with Warsaw Pact nations for decades. Sometimes, those borders consisted of a simple river or a wall. Yet, NATO never attacked them. From the fall of the Warsaw Pact to 2014, a closer relationship between NATO and the Russian Federation appeared likely. Some experts even speculated that Russia might even join NATO.
Two Diplomatic Visions
When the Iron Curtain collapsed in 1989, the West considered two opposing diplomatic views regarding the future of the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics (USSR). The first proposed a new partnership with post-Soviet Russia to attract it to the Western sphere. It would be much like the relationship between Tsarist Russia and post-Napoleonic France in 1815. The second vision argued that Russia should be punished harshly, like Germany after World War I.
The conciliatory first vision largely prevailed, as the West extended a conciliatory hand to the dying USSR.
Thus, a series of contacts gradually brought the USSR (and its successor, the Russian Federation) toward the West. Secretary of State James Baker visited Moscow in February 1990. Mikhail Gorbachev reciprocated by visiting the United States in May 1990. The Soviet Union participated in the G7 summit in Houston in July 1990. The Russian Federation joined the WTO in 1993 and the expanded G8 in 1997. It appeared that Russia was leaving Marxism behind.
Russia’s Path to NATO
Rapprochement with NATO was part of the anticipated thaw.
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