You believe wrong. Instead of double guessing what I think, how about providing answers to the specific questions put to you? There's only one reason why you won't do that that I can think: you don't have any.
A joke, you say. What is a joke is that you have to resort to AI to find some vague threats from Russia that are in direct response to actual aggression from the U.K. and Germany respectively. That's really, really scraping the barrel R_L!
Deflection. You're not addressing the questions put to you. Again, we both know the reason why.
You say
: "Sachs has a selective memory. Remember, Gorbachev denied the so-called promises when Gorbachev was no longer a politician."
Totally wrong. Rather than reading how someone else interprets Gorbachev's comments - why not read the
actual interview? Far from denying the promises, he fully acknowledges U.S. Secretary of State James Baker’s promise that:
“NATO will not move one inch further east.” What he also said was:
"The topic of 'NATO expansion' was not discussed at all . . ." Why would it be? As he'd been given assurances that NATO wouldn't expand one inch to the east then, self evidently, there's nothing to discuss.
In the same interview. Gorbachev goes on to say (
bold emphasis added by me). . .
"Today we need to admit that there is a crisis in European (and global) politics. One of the reasons, albeit not the only reason, is a lack of desire on the part of our Western partners to take Russia’s point of view and legal interests in security into consideration. They paid lip service to applauding Russia, especially during the Yeltsin years, but in deeds they didn’t consider it. I am referring primarily to NATO expansion, missile defense plans, the West’s actions in regions of importance to Russia (Yugoslavia, Iraq, Georgia, Ukraine). They literally said “This is none of your business.” As a result, an abscess formed and it burst.
I would advise Western leaders to thoroughly analyze all of this, instead of accusing Russia of everything. They should remember the Europe we managed to create at the beginning of the 1990s and what it has unfortunately turned into in recent years."
Russia's pointed out these failings on the part of the west multiple times over decades. As you well know but refuse to acknowledge, continuing to ignore and/or dismiss Russia's security concerns is the reason the war started. If western leaders had heeded Gorbachev's comments when the interview was conducted in 2014 - the war could have been avoided altogether.
R_L, you write:
". . . Also, starting in 1999, when the Soviet Union was history, former Soviet republics and satellites started joining NATO. Can anyone think of any possible reason they would do that? Did NATO force them, or did they see the threat from the east?"
As you must surely know by now, if the U.S. wants something - woe betide those that stands in its way. It has successfully managed to turn the whole of Europe into a collective vassal state and would certainly want to bring former soviet republics under its umbrella. As for any perceived threat they may have felt, a more pertinent question to ask is: Why would they perceive a threat from the east (Russia) when Russia's just granted them independence? That makes no sense at all.
R_L, I like you and I'm happy to engage with you
if you're willing to be serious and address the points made. Sadly, there's little evidence of that recently and I feel you're just wasting of my time. So, I'll end by saying please do us both a favour and read Prof. Sachs' letter and watch the interview with him with an open mind and consider his points carefully. Thereafter, ask yourself how you would respond to decades long provocation from the U.S. and the EU if you were in Putin's shoes.
Tim.
