There's no propaganda. It's true that there was no written agreement (as NATO would have cared if there was). But there was indeed repeated promises and they are well documented. If NATO didn't promise "to not expand one inch towards Russia", Soviet would not have agreed to the unification of Germany and it would not have dissolved the Warsaw Pact. Simple as that.
In fact, there has been made promises at least 12 times on various occasions, all documented. Here are a few of them:
On January 31, 1990, German Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher Hans-Dietrich Genscher, speaking in Tutzing (West Germany), put forward the condition: “quid pro quo” — there will be no expansion of NATO territory to the East, closer to the borders of the Soviet Union, if the Soviets allow German reunification.
Speaking at the evangelical Academy in Tutzing, Genscher turned to NATO with a demand to confirm: “whatever happens in the Warsaw Pact countries, there will be no expansion of NATO territory to the east, closer to the borders of the Soviet Union.”
On February 2, 1990, Genscher made it clear that “NATO will not expand its territorial presence either in the GDR or anywhere else in Eastern Europe.” This statement of Genscher is confirmed by the archival documents of the US Department of State. You'll find it online on history.state.gov. Genscher also
At the talks in Moscow on February 7–9, 1990, D. Baker repeatedly linked the reunification of Germany with the commitment not to expand NATO. For example, on February 9, 1990, Baker promised Eduard Amvrosievich Shevardnadze “explicit guarantees that the jurisdiction of NATO forces would not move to the east.”
On February 9, 1990, Baker promised that “there will be no expansion of NATO’s jurisdiction by an inch to the east” at a meeting with Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev.
On February 10, 1990, Genscher said to E.A. Shevardnadze that “NATO will not expand to the East. This is also confirmed a described in Journal of Cold War Studies, Vol. 14 (2012)
In 1991 Secretary-General Manfred Werner made the straightforward statement: “Personally, I and the NATO Council are against the expansion of the alliance. This view is shared by 13 of the 16 NATO members. I will speak against the NATO membership of Poland and Ro- mania to the leaders of these countries, as I have already delivered to the leaders of Hungary and Czechoslovakia. ... The isolation of the USSR from the European community should not be allowed”
So it's you my friend who is repeating NATO's and the US's propaganda that there were no promises.
Why does Putin consider NATO a threat? Because it impedes his ability to throw his weight around, full stop.
There is nothing pointing at Putin has expansionist or imperialist ambitions. Neither historical or that he suddenly woke up one morning with the bright idea of taking Ukraine. In March 2022, Ukraine had already signed a peace deal with Russia. The USA and UK sabotaged the deal and forced Ukraine to continue making war against Russia. This is confirmed by Israel and Turkey:
https://mronline.org/2023/02/07/former- ... eace-deal/Putin has shown the content of the deal, and again, that the content is true and that it had been signed has been confirmed by Turkey. Ukraine was allowed to keep the whole of Donbas according to the deal. Doesn't sound like expansionism, or does it?
Russia didn't even start launching an attack at Kiev and so far, the civil casualty ratios is far lower than any known historical war. Acc to OHCHR, the confirmed number of civilian is less than 10 000. Every death is obviously tragic and unnecessary, but still, the civilian casualty ratio is a proof by itself that Ru has only focused on military targets and has tried to prevent civilian casualties and collateral damage.
Very different from what the US and NATO have done in their illegal wars, killing millions of civilians.
Ratio of dead soldiers/combatants to dead civilians:
World War I (1914-1918): Approximately 1 to 1.
World War II (1939-1945): Approximately 1 to 3 to 1 to 4, depending on the region and conflict area.
Vietnam War (1955-1975): Approximately 1 to 1.
Bosnian War (1992-1995): Approximately 1 to 1.5 to 1 to 3, depending on the period and area.
Iraq War (2003-2011): varies from 1 to 10 and higher depending on sources and time periods.
Russia – Ukraine (Feb 2022 -->) : 15 and higher to 1, depending on what figures of casualties you want to believe.
NATO poses no threat to Russian sovereignty.
Now, is NATO a threat against Russia? Let's look at facts:
First: NATO has nothing to do in east Europe, on the paper it is a defense organisation aimed at protecting the North Atlantic region. Even the famous article 5 is directly connected to the threat of the same region. How does NATO in Ukraine help protecting the North Atlantic region???
Second: Putin said in 2008 that Ukraine is the limit for NATO expansion. "No means No". So apparently he thought NATO was a threat.
Third: Stoltenberg and Merkel has admitted that NATO has armed and trained Ukraine since 2014.
Fourth: In 2019, NATO Secreraty-General Jens Stoltenberg announced A BIG increase in defence spending for the European NATO countries, that would, by the end of 2024, reach $400 billion. Stoltenberg said: “This is unprecedented progress and it is making NATO stronger.”
So look at it from Russia's perspective as Kong Bao Long suggested.
BTW, here is an interest clip with Zelensky's friend and former advisor predicting Russia's invasion:
https://odysee.com/@Manoeuvrer:6/Aresto ... Zelensky:2Anyway, I understand that people don't like Russia and have hard to understand or accept its actions. That's understandable. However, even hating Russia doesn't mean you need to support the ultranationalist government in Ukraine. The world's most corrupt government, a government that doesn't care about its people and has not worked for its people's will since 2014, but rather worked straight against it.
by Dmitri on Fri Feb 24, 2023 8:21 pm 
Russia, Russia, Russia 
