NATO Expansion Quotes
It was true that the majority of the citizens of Crimea in 2014 preferred to be a part of Russia than the Ukraine. So the Russians sized the Crimea, had an election and when the vast majority of the Crimeans voted for Russian affiliation, they annexed the Crimea under the principle of self-determination. However, Russia has two of its states with Muslim majorities that prefer to affiliate with one of the majority Muslim nations in the area. But the hypocrisy of the Russians became clear when they would not allow those two states to have elections. The Russian policy seemed to be that whatever is part of Russia is non-negotiable and not subject to self-determination, but whatever borders on Russia that is not part of Russia is entitled to an expression of self-determination and independence of other affiliation if they want. The Crimea had the only warm water port in the Soviet Union; they had a deal with the Ukrainians that their navy could use the port. However, they felt that Western support for the new Ukrainian government was the first step in ousting Russia from that port.
Bush wanted to expand NATO to include Poland and Hungary. However the German and American governments had previously (before the collapse of the Soviet Union) given promises to the Russians that NATO would never be expanded Eastward from East Germany. See {32678}. Bush went ahead and violated those promises anyway using the excuse that the agreement had not been part of a treaty. That decision had implications for Russian attitudes towards the United States and Western Europe. The Russians repudiated their agreements in 2014 and invaded the Crimea and took it from Ukraine. The Russians however had broken promises many time whereas the United States reversals of promises, like this were few. Bush’s logic however was not in keeping with traditional American standards. We made a deal with Russia when they were a strong superpower who could easily damage many of our national interests. However, when they were weak, we no longer have to do anything we agreed to when they were strong. The great irony was that reacting against Westernization of Ukraine, Premier Putin, by seizing the Crimea and successfully supporting ethnic Russian separatists in Ukraine put Russia back on the map as a major power in the world who could act with impunity against the interests of the West, Europe, the United States and the NATO countries. Most Russians rejoiced that Russia was again an empire that could not be dictated to.
After the breakup of the Soviet Union, NATO expanded to include some fo the former Soviet Nations thus moving NATO territiry to the East--closer to Russia, whose leaders percieved that the expansion was hostile and dangerous for the indpendence of Russia. What made the situation more complex is that the American Secretary of State, when the Soviet Union was very powerful, had made an agreement with the Soviets that in return for Russian aquiessance of NATO being extended to East Germany, NATO would not expand further West. But after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia was quite weak and NATO expanded east despite the earleir comittment. The US and th eother NATO counties took the pozition the previous comitmnts were not binidng as they were never formally signed. The Russians then decided to take a hard line position and flaunt and use military force to which would stop the Western expansion closer to the Russian border.
The reality of course was that NATO was created primarily to prevent Russia from dominating Europe. Baker could not officially state that. There are many experts who believe that if Russia had been allowed to join NATO after the breakup of the Soviet Union, relations with Russia may have been better. However, the NATO charter gives each member nation a veto over activities and there was little trust in Russia by most of the NATO members.
