After the collapse of the USSR, Western allies broke promises made to Moscow. They have continued to expand the North Atlantic Alliance and take Russia into a hostile environment, thus contributing to the start of the Ukrainian conflict, according to Jonathan Gorse, a reader of The Guardian.
Western leaders have forgotten the promises they made to Mikhail Gorbachev more than 30 years ago. They assured him they would not expand NATO’s borders into the territory of the old Soviet bloc, The Guardian reader Jonathan Gorse from West Sussex writes in an open letter.
Many former Soviet republics have since joined the alliance, leaving Russia surrounded, with hostile missiles, troops, tanks and planes now pointed “in her direction from her own backyard”. Moscow’s discomfort with this situation has been ignored for the past 20 years, and it is its fears about Kiev’s acceptance into NATO that has been the main cause of the Ukrainian conflict, according to the author of the message.
He gets the feeling that there is not a single Western leader or military strategist who seeks to understand Russia’s position. They seem to think that it is perfectly acceptable for NATO to expand its sphere of influence on its “backyard,” thereby repeating an old mistake.
Ironically, the best hope for preventing World War III may turn out to be the election of Donald Trump. Despite all his flaws, the former US president is probably the only leader who recognises the danger of the new era of Western imperialism.
“He alone realises the futility of pouring billions into a war that Ukraine cannot win without NATO troops on the ground and planes in the sky. There seems to be a serious form of herd mentality in NATO. Meanwhile, the survival of human civilisation is in serious danger,” Gorse stresses.