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At the command of the United States, changes to NATO were opened for discussion today, in ways that would alter the NATO alliance in a staggering way. These changes are based upon a letter, sent by Russian President Vladimir Putin back in the year 2021.
In that letter Russia pointed out that they were promised "NATO will not move one inch eastward" if the then-Soviet Union allowed the re-unification of what was, at the time, East and West Germany.
This promise was conveyed officially to then-Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev and his then-Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze, at a meeting, in the Kremlin, in Moscow, on February 9, 1990.
The promise was conveyed to Gorbachev by then US Secretary of State James Baker, who was directed to provide that promise by then US President George H.W. Bush (the father).
These facts are recorded in the National Security Archive of the United States, relevant page shown below:
A direct link to the US National Security Archive Document from which the above image came, is HERE. See Page 6, Paragraph 2 of the document.
Baker conveyed the promise.
The promise was reiterated publicly by then German Minister of Defense, Gerhard Stoltenberg.
Gorbachev agreed and, as part of that agreement, he withdrew three-hundred-thousand Soviet troops from East Germany, thereby allowing the re-unification of East and West Germany.
There, was the peace.
Fast-forward nine years and along comes US President Bill Clinton. He decided that NATO should move east, and that is when this trouble began.
NATO countries that joined the alliance after 1990, as of February 19, 2025:
Czech Republic (1999)
Hungary (1999)
Poland (1999)
Bulgaria (2004)
Estonia (2004)
Latvia (2004)
Lithuania (2004)
Romania (2004)
Slovakia (2004)
Slovenia (2004)
Albania (2009)
Croatia (2009)
2014 - Attempts to recruit Ukraine begin. When President Yanukovych declined, the US, the EU and NATO fomented, financed, and facilitated the "Maidan Revolution" which violently overthrew Yanukovych and installed a puppet regime in Kiev.
That regime immediately commenced massing troops at the borders of its eastern Oblasts (states) Luhansk and Donetsk, then began shelling and firing mortars at the civilian populations because they were "Russian-speaking." It was a brazen attempt at Ethnic Cleansing. About 13,000 civilians were killed in those attacks by the Kiev puppet government.
Seeing this unfold, the Russian-speaking population of Crimea, voted to secede from Ukraine, and return to Russia. At that time, Crimea had only been part of Ukraine for about 55 years, after then-Soviet leader Khrushchev GAVE Crimea to Ukraine. A public Referendum was held and over 87% of the vote agreed to leave Ukraine and return home to Russia.
Montenegro (2017)
North Macedonia (2020)
Finland (2023)
Sweden (2024)
All these countries joined NATO and all of them have missiles aimed at . . . . . . Russia. The Russians have had enough. They realize that NATO has been trying to surround Russia with so many missiles, that one day, NATO can call and say "Either you surrender or Russia won't exist five minutes from now." Russia would face annihilation.
That is why Russia entered Ukraine; to stop the expansion of NATO. From a national security perspective, Russia had no choice. They either fight it out now, while they still can, or wait to be surrounded and find themselves unable to defend their own country.
Today, at the order of President Trump, discussions began about all the countries listed above being in NATO. The letter sent to NATO by President Putin in 2021 called this expansion of NATO "an existential threat to the Russian Federation."
As most readers are already aware, under Russian nuclear doctrine, a "Threat to the Existence of the state" is justification to make a nuclear strike.
Former NATO General Secretary Jens Stoltenberg admitted this on TV, when he said "Putin went to war over NATO Expansion:"
What President Trump has ordered, is likely to result in a staggering change to what NATO looks like right now. It is not clear if NATO will have to withdraw from the countries named above, or not.
What ___ is ___ being discussed in Washington, is the removal of U.S. troops from those countries!!!!!
This COULD BE (emphasis on "could") a dramatic, unprecedented, change. But it just may, keep the peace and settle this whole Ukraine nonsense.
