In about 1990, United States Secretary of State James Baker told Mikhail Gorbachev. "NATO will not move an inch further east", as quoted by President Putin. This is the reason the President and his staff often state that NATO has broken its promise not to expand its influence.
"They are clearly deceiving us. In fact, NATO is expanding itself," Putin said.
The Russian president has repeatedly stated that NATO has deceived Russia and broken promises by using the profits from the collapse of the Soviet Union behind the scenes to increase its influence across Europe. He also narrated that was Russia the victim and the aggrieved party due to the expansion of NATO.
During the 1990s or after the Cold War until the 2020s, NATO membership increased, and most of the Central and Southeast European countries were former countries that were members of the Warsaw Pact (Albania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Poland, Romania, Czech Republic, and Slovakia). In mid-2022, Northern European countries Finland and Sweden are interested in becoming the next members and are waiting for the approval process. Even though President Putin some time ago when the military operation took place, said he was not disturbed by the plan to join the two countries into the alliance. However, in contrast to Ukraine, which wants official membership, it has been delayed due to alliance doubts even though Ukraine has been leaning and influenced by the West.
Contrary to President Putin's remarks, US foreign official Steven Pifer said that "NATO leadership never promised not to expand NATO". According to him, President Putin's statement is in line with the fact that Russia is a disadvantaged party, deceived by others and increasingly isolated due to widespread Western influence.
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