This piece was reprinted by OpEd News with permission or license. It may not be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.
"On Feb. 10, 1990, between 4 and 6:30 p.m., Genscher spoke with [Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard] Shevardnadze. And, according to the German record of the conversation, Genscher said: 'We are aware that NATO membership for a unified Germany raises complicated questions. For us, however, one thing is certain: NATO will not expand to the east.' And because the conversation revolved mainly around East Germany, Genscher added explicitly: 'As far as the non-expansion of NATO is concerned, this also applies in general.'"
NATO's Growth Spurt
Some of us -- though a distinct minority -- know the rest of the story. Generally overlooked in Western media, it nevertheless sets the historical stage as background for the upheaval in Ukraine last year. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 -- and the break-up of the Warsaw Pact -- Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic joined NATO in 1999. Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Romania joined in 2004. Albania and Croatia joined in 2009. And the Kremlin's leaders could do little more than look on impotently -- and seethe.
One can hardly fault those countries, most of which had lots of painful experience at Soviet hands. It is no mystery why they would want to crowd under the NATO umbrella against any foul weather coming from the East. But, as George Kennan and others noted at the time, it was a regrettable lack of imagination and statesmanship that no serious alternatives were devised to address the concerns of countries to the east of Germany other than membership in NATO.
The more so, inasmuch as there were so few teeth left, at the time, in the mouth of the Russian bear. And -- not least of all -- a promise is a promise.
As NATO expansion drew in countries closer to Russia's borders, the Kremlin drew a red line when, despite very strong warnings from Moscow, an April 3, 2008 NATO summit in Bucharest declared: "NATO welcomes Ukraine's and Georgia's Euro-Atlantic aspirations for membership in NATO. We agreed today that these countries will become members of NATO." Both countries, former Soviet states, press up upon Russia's soft southern underbelly.
Often forgotten -- in the West, but not in Russia -- is the impulsive reaction this NATO statement gave rise to on the part of Georgia's then-President Mikheil Saakashvili, who felt his oats even before the NATO umbrella could be opened. Less than five months after Georgia was put in queue for NATO membership, Saakashvili ordered Georgian forces to attack the city of Tskhinvali in South Ossetia. No one should have been surprised when Russia retaliated sharply, giving Georgian forces a very bloody nose in battles that lasted just five days.
Ultimately, Saakashvili's cheerleaders of the George W. Bush administration and then-Republican presidential candidate John McCain, who had been egging Saakashvili on, were powerless to protect him. Instead of drawing appropriate lessons from this failed experiment, however, the neocons running the foreign policy of Bush -- and remaining inside the Obama administration -- set their sights on Ukraine.
One Regime Change Too Many
It is becoming harder to hide the truth that Washington's ultimate objective to satisfy Ukraine's "Western aspirations" and incorporate it, ultimately, into NATO was what led the U.S. to mount the coup of Feb. 22, 2014, in Kiev. While it may be true that, as is said, revolutions "will not be televised," coups d'etat can be YouTubed.
And three weeks before the putsch in Kiev, U.S. State Department planning to orchestrate the removal of the Ukraine's duly elected President Viktor Yanukovych and select new leaders for Ukraine was placed -- chapter and verse -- on YouTube in the form of a four-minute intercepted telephone conversation between Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs Victoria Nuland and the yes-ma'am U.S. Ambassador in Kiev, Geoffrey Pyatt.
Hearing is believing. And for those in a hurry, here is a very short transcribed excerpt:
Nuland: What do you think?
Pyatt: I think we're in play. The Klitschko [Vitaly Klitschko, one of three main opposition leaders] piece is obviously the complicated electron here. " I think that's the next phone call you want to set up, is exactly the one you made to Yats [Arseniy Yatseniuk, another opposition leader]. And I'm glad you sort of put him on the spot on where he fits in this scenario. And I'm very glad that he said what he said in response.
Nuland: Good. I don't think Klitsch should go into the government. I don't think it's necessary, I don't think it's a good idea.
Pyatt: Yeah. I guess ... just let him stay out and do his political homework and stuff. ... We want to keep the moderate democrats together. The problem is going to be Tyahnybok [Oleh Tyahnybok, the other main opposition leader, head of the far-right Svoboda party] and his guys ...
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
5
5
2
