When did the Russia-Ukraine conflict start? 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine? 2014 when the U.S. orchestrated a coup in Kiev, and Crimea voted to join Russia? Actually, no. They were more like Acts 10 and 15 of a long drama. Act 1 of the riveting play started in 1990!
In 1990, negotiators from US, Germany, France, UK, NATO etc. assured Gorbachev that NATO would not expand “one inch east forward” after the collapse of the USSR. Naively, the Russian side believed it.
Declassified documents released in 2017 show how Western leaders promised (fooled) Russia. “U.S. Secretary of State James Baker’s famous ‘not one inch eastward’ assurance about NATO expansion in his meeting with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev on February 9, 1990, was part of a cascade of assurances about Soviet security given by Western leaders to Gorbachev.”
