Russia Calls For Agreements to Prevent Expanding NATO Eastward

Via telesur english, Dec. 7, 2021

"Ukraine's accession to NATO is a red line for us and we have said it for a long time. The ongoing policy aimed at dragging Kiev into the orbit of the alliance, the actual move by NATO to use the Ukrainian military infrastructure, and attempts to turn Ukraine into a foothold in a confrontation with Russia, could have serious negative consequences and exacerbate the military and political situation in Europe," she explained.

Since 1990, NATO has been expanding its zone of influence beyond Germany's eastern borders through the incorporation of 13 former Soviet Union countries into the Alliance. This geopolitical movement has been accompanied by the promotion of an anti-Russia sentiment through international mainstream media.

"Until an overarching understanding between Russia and the West is reached, the threat of large-scale armed conflict will always exist. It's not about whether Ukraine will join NATO or not, it's Russia's growing political marginalization in its historic hinterland," analyst Sinan Hanioglu tweeted.”

Via sputnik.com Dec. 7, ‘Biden Warns Putin of Economic Sanctions and Other Measures in Event of Ukraine Military Escalation’


"The Tuesday call between Biden and Putin lasted two hours and one minute and covered a range of topics, but focused primarily on Russian troops deployed near the country's western borders, which Western media is widely reporting as a sign of an imminent invasion of Ukraine.

"President Biden voiced the deep concerns of the United States and our European Allies about Russia’s escalation of forces surrounding Ukraine and made clear that the US and our Allies would respond with strong economic and other measures in the event of military escalation," a readout of the call released by the White House said."

(cross-posted from Café Babylon)

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wendy davis's picture

right.

NATO
@NATO
Working for peace, security and freedom for nearly one billion people. Official Twitter account of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

(click the bitly link)

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Nothing that she said was even close to the truth.

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wendy davis's picture

@humphrey

is a disinformation press person. the myths were fun to read, and i loved the photo with jens and russian FM sergei lavrov.

her 5 myths tag was #disinfo; gotta love it, eh humprey?

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Lookout's picture

The conditionality of the Soviet Union’s agreement to allow East Germany to be taken by West Germany and for the Cold War to end, was that NATO would not expand «one inch to the east». This was the agreement that was approved by the Russian President of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, a great man and a subsequent hero to democrats around the world.

He agreed then to end the Soviet Union and abandon communism and thus to end the entire Cold War; he agreed to this because he had been promised that NATO would expand not «one inch to the east,» or «one inch eastward,» depending upon how the promise was translated and understood — but it has the same meaning, no matter how it was translated. He trusted American President George Herbert Walker Bush, whose friend and Secretary of State James Baker made this promise to Gorbachev. With this promise, Gorbachev agreed to end the Soviet Union; end the communist mutual-defense pact which was their own equivalent of NATO, the Warsaw Pact; and he believed that the remaining nation that he would then be leading, which was Russia, would be accepted as a Western democracy.

Russia kept its part of the bargain. The United States did not; the U.S. instead lied through its teeth and so has since expanded NATO to absorb former member-nations of the Warsaw Pact into NATO as being, now, an anti-Russian military alliance — exactly what the U.S. had promised would never happen.

https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2015/09/10/how-america-double-cro...

We've been lying since signing treaties with first nations peoples...why would any other country trust the US?

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

wendy davis's picture

@Lookout

thanks for bringing it, as i'd long since forgotten the details of Gorby's final agreement to détente. the first was with ronnie rayguns as i just read.

We've been lying since signing treaties with first nations peoples.

yes, and i believe that's the origin of the term 'indian giver'.

on edit: i'd forgotten to add this interesting bit from zuesse i'd copied:

Gorbachev’s failure to demand these assurances in writing has been widely criticized, but handshake agreements in international affairs are common, and no treaty was to be signed at the end of the Cold War because it hadn’t been a hot war: there were no claims, no restitution or reparations to be paid by either side to the other. Gorbachev thought that the U.S. was honest and could be trusted — that understandings reached in private and witnessed by numerous participants would be honored by the West, as they would be by Russia.

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The only thing that President Putin is threatening to do is to defend the citizens of the Donbas region from the bloodthirsty Ukrainian nationalists. Kiev is seriously considering crushing the Russian separatists in Donetsk and Lugansk by military force, although that would be against the Minsk accords as signed by Ukraine. Reports are that they have 120,000 troops on the line. What is wrong with this picture is that neither the US nor the EU is pressuring Ukraine to implement the Minsk accords, which would completely solve the problem. Agreements, once again, mean nothing to the US and NATO. So the pretzel logic here is that Russia is threatening poor Ukraine. There are two possible reasons that the West is doing this. The first is that they have given Kiev the green light to invade the Donbas region and the West is trying to preempt a Russian military move to defend the ethnic Russians there. The second is that it is all marketing, that it's obvious that the US and NATO and Ukraine are the bad actors here and this propaganda tries to shift the blame to Russia. The West has always threatened Russia with the fact that they have the louder marketing voice.

On top of this mess, the Dirty Dishonest Democrats have poisoned the well. Having thoroughly used fake Russian collusion to get Trump, they are now faced with Republicans screaming that Biden is soft on Russia - time for revenge. This motivates Biden's nannies to insist that he has a more hostile relationship with Russia , to prove his Russophobia credentials. Bad news for the planet. Fortunately, President Putin has a steady hand on the throttle and nothing militarily will happen unless the West gives the green light for Kiev to attack the Donbas region. I'm hoping that the West understands that Russia is very serious about defending the Donbas and that time and temperature are on Russia's side.

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Capitalism has always been the rule of the people by the oligarchs. You only have two choices, eliminate them or restrict their power.

wendy davis's picture

@The Wizard

it all began with nuland's maidan putsch in ukraine, didn't it. out yanocovitch (?) in with yats who couldn't control his neo-nazis.

one possible quibble i that some of 'the little green men' who'd been protecting the two self-declared republics in the east were still wearing old russian uniforms and using heretofore abandoned and unreliable tanks. but that may be my leaky brain remembering speaking.

i also recall that no manner how many IMF loans ukraine got, they couldn't pony up their entrance fees to nato, nor stop internal corruption. the comedian zelensky has been the same as the old ones, yes?

Ukrainian President praises Nazi collaborators, RT.com

...but ignored the red army's contributions.

The celebrations marking the 30th anniversary of the establishment of Kiev’s armed forces come amid heightened tensions on the Russian-Ukrainian shared border. Last week, Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov warned that the risk of a full-blown armed conflict in southeastern Ukraine is highly likely, which is becoming a matter of grave concern for Moscow.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova alleged the day before that Kiev was significantly increasing its military force in the Donbass by “pulling heavy equipment and personnel” into the region. “According to some reports, the number of troops… in the conflict zone already reaches 125,000 people,” the representative said.

biden must be tougher on russia, indeed. if he's even t the wheel of this ship of fools.

yes, there be dragons there.

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wendy davis's picture

oh the chicanery! mr. wd steered me to this:

‘Other participants of Putin-Biden meeting revealed’, 7 Dec, 2021, RT.com

putin had his translator in a separate office, but:

A White House photo released after the call showed the interpreter, as well as Secretary of State Antony Blinken, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, and NSC’s senior director for Russia Eric Green sitting in the Situation Room alongside the president.

They were “surrounded” by Putin on all sides, as every screen in the room displayed the Russian leader on the other end of the call.

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