Perspective-NATO Expansion Part of The Problem Or Not So Much?
Historical Flashback-My added bold of course. It may add something to the discussion about Ukraine.
This is a couple comments combined actually, a bunch of links with background.
Yeltsin Opposes Expansion Of NATO in Eastern Europe
By ROGER COHEN,
Published: October 2, 1993President Boris N. Yeltsin, apparently under pressure from his armed forces, has sent a letter to President Clinton opposing any expansion of NATO to include East European nations like Poland or the Czech Republic, Western diplomats said today.
Sent after President Yeltsin dissolved Parliament on Sept. 21 and embarked on a collision course with members opposed to his reforms, the letter amounts to sharp retreat from the position the Russian leader outlined during a visit to Warsaw in August. At the time he expressed understanding of Poland’s desire to join NATO and said it did not threaten Russian interests.
“Yeltsin calls it an elaboration of his position, but I’d describe it as furious backpedaling,” one diplomat who has seen a copy of the letter said. Clinton Undecided
NATO officials said that while debate on the issue of expanding the NATO alliance had been intense in Washington in the last month, President Clinton had not made up his mind on the question.