In the midst of the Ukraine crisis, relations between Russia and NATO are at an all-time low: NPR

news7g12/14/2021

6 7 minutes read

In the midst of the Ukraine crisis, relations between Russia and NATO are at an all-time low: NPR

Military vehicles and tanks from Poland, Italy, Canada and the United States roll over during NATO exercises in Latvia in September. NATO responded to Russia’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula by ramping up its forces near Russia and conduct exercises on the territory of the Baltic members.

File photo Roman Koksarov / AP

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File photo Roman Koksarov / AP

MOSCOW – Russia’s military build-up near Ukraine has raised concerns in Kyiv and the West that Moscow could invade the neighboring country.

Tensions over Ukraine come at a time when relations between Russia and NATO are at a new low, once so warm that President Vladimir Putin even raised the prospect of his country joining the military alliance.

Looking back at the Russia-NATO relationship:

The Cold War and the Fall of Communism

For decades during the Cold War, the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact allies in Central and Eastern Europe were locked in a tense battle with NATO.

That confrontation eased in the 1980s when Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev moved to reform the Soviet Union and encouraged democratic reform in the Eastern bloc countries. Gorbachev made no attempt to prevent the collapse of communist regimes in those allies, and he quickly agreed to unify East and West Germany after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

In times of crisis - or to create a crisis - Russia's Putin turns to his army

During the negotiations for German reunification, Gorbachev received promises from the West that NATO would not expand eastward, but he never recorded those verbal commitments.

Busy with economic and political crises following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russian President Boris Yeltsin paid little heed when Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic joined NATO in 1999.

That same year, NATO’s air campaign against Serbia, a Russian ally, marked the first major rift between Moscow and the military alliance since the fall of the Soviet Union.

US President Bill Clinton toasts with Russian President Boris Yeltsin at a dinner party in Moscow in 1995. Busy with economic and political crises after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Yeltsin little Pay attention to when Polish, Hungarian and Czech. The Republic joined NATO in 1999.

Alexander Zemlianichenko / AP file photo

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Alexander Zemlianichenko / AP file photo

Putin entered the game with a short thaw

After Putin succeeded Yeltsin in 2000, he rapidly increased ties with the West, even testing the grounds for Russia to join NATO.

Lord George Robertson, who served as NATO Secretary-General from 1999-2004, recently recalled Putin asking him when the alliance would invite Russia and how he felt when Robertson replied that Moscow would have to sign up. sign up for membership, just like any other country. candidate.

Mr. Putin later said that NATO was not ready to accept Russia because the West was afraid of its strength and independent stance.

While exploring the possibility of NATO membership, Putin also moved to forge closer political and security ties with Washington and its allies.

After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Putin was the first foreign leader to call then-US President George W. Bush to offer assistance. He was quick to applaud the US deployment of troops to bases in former Soviet republics in Central Asia for the war in Afghanistan. In another goodwill gesture, Putin moved to close Soviet-era bases in Cuba and Vietnam.

Although Moscow’s efforts with NATO never materialized, in 2002 Russia and the alliance agreed to form a council to coordinate policies and cooperate on counterterrorism and other issues.

After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Russian President Vladimir Putin was the first foreign leader to call US President George W. Bush and offer assistance. He was quick to applaud the US deployment of troops to bases in former Soviet republics in Central Asia for the war in Afghanistan.

Doug Mills / AP file photo

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Doug Mills / AP file photo

A cold return

Relations between Russia and NATO began to deteriorate in 2002 after Washington rejected a Cold War-era treaty banning defenses against ballistic missiles, a move Moscow saw as a potential threat. for its nuclear deterrence.

The US war in Iraq in 2003 drew strong criticism from Moscow and further strained relations. Russia grumbled even more when Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and former Soviet republics such as Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania joined NATO in 2004.

Tensions between the West and Russia increased in 2004 as Orange Revolution protests in Ukraine forced the annulment of a fraudulent election victory of a Kremlin-backed presidential candidate. The Kremlin views those protests and the ousting of a previously unpopular leader in the former Soviet republic of Georgia as Western interference in what it sees as Russia’s backyard.

In his watershed speech at a security conference in Munich, Germany, in 2007, Putin strongly criticized US moves around the world, saying that Washington “has exceeded its national borders in every way”. way” and called NATO’s eastward expansion “a grave provocation.”

Russo-Georgian War

Russia complained when NATO promised membership of Ukraine and Georgia at a summit in Bucharest, Romania, in April 2008, seeing it as a blow to its vital security interests. .

Four months later, Russia invaded Georgia in a five-day war that broke out as the South Caucasus nation used force to try to regain control of the breakaway Moscow-backed province of South Ossetia.

Russia quickly recognized South Ossetia and another rebel Georgian province, Abkhazia, as independent states and cemented its military foothold there.

Ukraine conflict brings actions and countermeasures

In 2014, Kremlin-friendly President Viktor Yanukovych was ousted from power by mass protests that broke out when he decided to abandon a deal with the European Union, in favor of closer ties with Russia. Moscow.

Russia responded by annexing Ukraine’s Crimea Peninsula and supporting separatist rebels in the industrial heart of eastern Ukraine, known as the Donbas. The conflict, now in its eighth year, has killed more than 14,000 people and efforts to find a political solution have failed. Moscow denies any involvement, saying that any Russians involved in the fighting were volunteers to join the separatists.

Then the US and its allies dealt a blow to Moscow, and NATO stopped all practical cooperation with Moscow, consolidating their forces near Russia. The Kremlin accuses deployments and exercises near its border as a security threat.

In October, Russia suspended its mission in NATO and ordered the closure of the alliance’s Moscow office after NATO withdrew its recognition of eight Russian officials to its headquarters in Brussels, accusing them of having ties to Russia. with Russian intelligence.

Tensions spiked last month amid a Russian military buildup near Ukraine. Putin has denied planning such an attack but sought a Western commitment that NATO would not incorporate Ukraine into the alliance or deploy its forces there – an expansion he has expressed. described as a “red line” for Moscow.

In a phone call last week, US President Joe Biden warned Mr Putin of “serious consequences” if Russia invaded Ukraine, but promised to hold consultations to address Russia’s concerns.

President Joe Biden speaks as he meets virtually via a secure video conference with Putin from the Situation Room at the White House on December 7. President Putin called on the West to make a legal commitment not to implement deploying forces and weapons to Ukraine.

Adam Schultz / White House via AP

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Adam Schultz / White House via AP

Next steps for NATO, Russia

NATO’s credibility depends on a guarantee of mutual defense, known as Article 5, whereby an attack on one member is considered an attack on all of them and the commitment to provide membership to any European country that can contribute to security in Europe and North America. But both Ukraine and Georgia have unresolved conflicts on their territories, and their inclusion now would force all 30 member states to deploy defensive militaries.

Russia wants the West to make a legal commitment not to deploy forces and weapons to Ukraine, and the Russian Foreign Ministry last week asked NATO to cancel its 2008 commitment to accept Ukraine and Georgia as members.

The US and other NATO allies have rejected Russia’s request. “NATO’s relationship with Ukraine will be determined by 30 NATO allies and Ukraine, no one else,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said last week.

Putin countered NATO’s argument by saying that although Ukraine is free to decide on its security arrangements, those agreements should not threaten Russia.

“Every country certainly has the right to choose an acceptable way of ensuring its security, but it must be done in a way that does not infringe upon the interests and undermine the security of other states, in the event of In this case, Russia,” Putin said. “Security must be universal and equally inclusive for all.”

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news7g12/14/2021

6 7 minutes read