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> What deeper integration would that have been? Boris Yeltsyn was proposing to Bill Clinton to admit Russia into NATO. This way Russian ambitions would be tame

• actionfromafar 3y ago
  Of course, we can't know what a Russian NATO membership could have lead to. But a few red flags - Russia just barely held together at that time and had its own civil war. Also, there's the risk of Russia joining just to walk away with the keys to the kingdom at any later point. If the CFE inspections (1) were anything to go by, Russia didn't exactly play fair. 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_on_Conventional_Armed_Forces_in_Europe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_on_Conventional_Armed_F...
  • protomolecule 3y ago
    That's comical that you mention CFE. Your own link says: "The treaty proposed equal limits for the two "groups of states-parties", the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the Warsaw Pact" and later "most former non-USSR Warsaw Treaty members subsequently joined NATO, followed later by the Baltic states and the states of the former Yugoslavia". "CFE-II took into account the different geopolitical situation of the post-Cold War era by setting national instead of bloc-based limits on conventional armed forces. NATO members refused however to ratify the treaty..." [0] What a surprise. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_on_Conventional_Armed_Forces_in_Europe#Follow-up_agreements https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_on_Conventional_Armed_F...
    • actionfromafar 3y ago
      I'm not saying there wasn't mistrust from all sides. I'm saying Russia may have had ulterior motives to join NATO.
      • protomolecule 3y ago
        "Ulterior motives" like what?
        • actionfromafar 3y ago
          Having a veto on who gets in the alliance, gathering intelligence, who knows? Not me. I just don't think Russia joining NATO is an apparent slam dunk success. Maybe it would have been great, we can never know for sure, but I can understand the suspicion.
          • protomolecule 3y ago
            "Having a veto on who gets in the alliance, gathering intelligence" With what goal?
            • actionfromafar 3y ago
              Attack Ukraine? But on the other hand, joining NATO could have changed the course of history for the better, so such plans may never have come into motion. This is all counterfactual. There was deep mistrust on all sides and it didn't happen.
              • protomolecule 3y ago
                Attack Ukraine why?
                • actionfromafar 3y ago
                  Read Putins "scholarly article".
                  • protomolecule 3y ago
                    I haven't read it. What do you mean specifically?