Russia’s demands on NATO non-expansion is prelude to future aggression, Portnikov says

This opinion was expressed by journalist Vitaly Portnikov on the air of Espreso.

"If Russia were to demand that NATO not admit Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia into the Alliance, that would at least have some explanation. We could interpret this as a response to Moldova and Georgia being candidates for EU membership. Moreover, Georgia has been invited to join NATO. There would at least be some political logic in this. 

The inclusion of Moldova in Russia's demands is particularly surprising, as the previous draft of the memorandum mentioned only Ukraine and Georgia. Moldova, after all, has a neutral status. However, even these three countries, which have declared a pro-European course—though not necessarily a Euro-Atlantic one—are being lumped together by the Russians with countries that are their allies," Portnikov explained.

The journalist added that the Russian leader is obsessed with the idea that the United States had allegedly guaranteed the Soviet Union that NATO would not expand eastward. This claim has been repeatedly refuted.

"Why should NATO guarantee that it will not admit members of the CSTO, like Belarus, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and so on? Putin has this fixed, completely fabricated idea that in 1989, U.S. Secretary of State James Baker guaranteed Gorbachev that NATO would not expand eastward. Both Gorbachev and Baker have refuted this claim, and for a simple reason: at the time of the meeting between the U.S. Secretary of State and the Soviet General Secretary, the Warsaw Pact was still in existence. 

It would have been sheer madness for the president of the USSR, or of any of the countries in the Warsaw Pact, to ask whether any of those countries could join NATO. No one at the time even entertained such a possibility. As they say in Moscow, there was no subject for discussion," he added.

Portnikov explained that Russians are already preparing the ground for future interventions in former Soviet republics.

"It is very advantageous for Russia to present itself as a country that has been deceived. They were 'betrayed' back then, and now they won’t let themselves be deceived again. It’s this whole narrative of a victim of injustice. That’s why Russia is now laying the foundation so that in the future it can once again claim to be a victim of injustice and have the pretext to act in the post-Soviet space as they see fit. 

Whenever a former Soviet republic declares its intention to leave the CSTO, Moscow will start shouting that they have been deceived and will send in troops—wherever they can. In other words, with their proposal and demand that NATO not expand eastward, they are preparing the ground for future aggression," Portnikov concluded.

• The Russian ruler Vladimir Putin is demanding the formal exclusion of NATO membership for former Soviet countries, including Georgia and Moldova, in exchange for halting the war in Ukraine.
• Donald Trump’s special representative, Keith Kellogg, said in an interview with ABC News that the U.S. is willing to discuss Russia’s demands regarding NATO’s non-expansion to the East.
• On May 30, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan stated that there is no unified position within NATO regarding Ukraine’s membership, and that the debate within the Alliance has been ongoing for quite some time.