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"NATO welcomes Ukraine's and Georgia's Euro-Atlantic aspirations for membership in NATO. We agreed today that these countries will become members of NATO."
Though the timing was left up in the air, Russia reacted strongly to the prospect, as anyone with an ounce of sense could have predicted.
Regarding Ukraine, the last straw came almost six years later when the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs, neocon prima donna Victoria Nuland, along with U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Piatt and others with an interest in stirring up trouble in Ukraine, helped precipitate a putsch that placed U.S. lackeys in charge of a new government for Ukraine on Feb. 22, 2014.
In a major speech 10 days later, Putin said:
"Our colleagues in the West ... have lied to us many times, made decisions behind our backs, placed before us an accomplished fact. This happened with NATO's expansion to the east, as well as the deployment of military infrastructure at our borders. ... It happened with the deployment of a missile defense system. ..."They are constantly trying to sweep us into a corner. ... But there is a limit to everything. And with Ukraine, our Western partners have crossed the line. ... If you compress the spring all the way to its limit, it will snap back hard. ... Today, it is imperative to end this hysteria and refute the rhetoric of the cold war. ... Russia has its own national interests that need to be taken into account and respected."
Quotes Around Russia's National "Interests"
Putin's speech riled those who run the editorial section of the neocon Washington Post, who on March 20 denounced "Putin's expansionist ambitions" and reviled those who are "rushing to concede 'Russian interests' in Eurasia." The Post lamented that President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry were among those who have said they recognize such "interests" in Ukraine.
And the Post gave space to former Bush national security adviser Stephen Hadley who wants NATO to "restate its commitment of the 2008 Bucharest Communiqué to ultimate NATO membership to Ukraine," and to "roll back the takeover of Crimea."
Oddly, abutting Hadley's drivel was an op-ed penned by former Carter national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski. After excoriating "Russian aggression [and] Putin's thuggish tactics," and comparing him to "a Mafia gangster," Hitler and Mussolini, Brzezinski nonetheless concluded: "The West should reassure Russia that it is not seeking to draw Ukraine into NATO."
Henry Kissinger, no peacenik he, wrote the same thing in a Washington Post op-ed of March 5, 2014: "Ukraine should not join NATO, a position I took seven years ago, when it last came up." Such suggestions from seasoned hands are not new. George Kennan, the author of the post WWII "containment policy," was a fierce opponent of the eastward expansion of NATO.
If today's Ukraine crisis is not to spin further out of control, President Obama needs to tell the neocons within his own administration -- as well as Secretary of State Kerry -- to cease and desist with their inflammatory rhetoric and their demands for confrontation.
If the objective of these hardliners was to poison U.S.-Russian relations, they have done a good job. However, if they had illusions that Russia would stand for Ukraine being woven into NATO, they should take a course in Russian history.
Or is it possible that some of the administration's hawks are offended that Putin provided a path away from a near U.S. military assault on Syria last summer by getting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to agree to surrender his chemical weapons?
In a highly unusual Sept. 11, 2013, op-ed in the New York Times, "A Plea for Caution From Russia," Putin recalled that our countries "were allies once, and defeated the Nazis together," adding, "My working and personal relationship with President Obama is marked by growing trust." [For more on this question of Obama-Putin cooperation, see Consortiumnews.com's "What Neocons Want from Ukraine Crisis."]
Not Rising to the Bait
The good news, if there is any coming from the Ukraine mess, is that Putin has avoided returning the personal invective hurled at him. He does not want to burn any bridges. It would hardly be surprising, at this stage, were Putin to badmouth Secretary Kerry, but Putin has shown some restraint, while still putting Kerry in his place.
At a news conference on March 4, Putin was asked about Kerry's harsh attitude and whether it might be time to recall the Russian ambassador to the U.S. Putin replied:
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