Posted on 05/13/2014 9:22:01 PM PDT by tcrlaf
A secret cable released by Wikileaks on Tuesday revealed that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned Washington as far back as 2008 that US-EU-NATO meddling in Ukraine could split the country in two.
“Following a muted first reaction to Ukraine’s intent to seek a NATO Membership Action Plan (MAP) at the Bucharest summit (ref A), Foreign Minister Lavrov and other senior officials have reiterated strong opposition, stressing that Russia would view further eastward expansion as a potential military threat,” said the 2008 cable classified by William Burns, than US Ambassador to Moscow and currently the US Deputy Secretary of State.
“NATO enlargement, particularly to Ukraine, remains ‘an emotional and neuralgic’ issue for Russia, but strategic policy considerations also underlie strong opposition to NATO membership for Ukraine and Georgia. In Ukraine, these include fears that the issue could potentially split the country in two, leading to violence or even, some claim, civil war, which would force Russia to decide whether to intervene,” the cable said.
The Russian foreign minister also emphasized that Moscow was convinced that the alliance’s enlargement was not based on security reasons, but instead was a legacy of the Cold War. Moreover, he warned, joining NATO was unlikely to strengthen democratic governments.
(Excerpt) Read more at russialist.org ...
I remember this being talked about, and dismissed, back then as:
"Sarah Palin's INSANE PARANOIA!!!".
2008? So this is Bush’s fault. /sarc
This is step #1 of a strategy to blame Bush.
“This is step #1 of a strategy to blame Bush.”
Coming as it does from RIA, I don’t believe so.
More like an “I told you so, but you didn’t listen!” to Obama....
Now let’s see if the US Mainstream Media picks it up.
Well, yeah. The Russian Foreign Minister warned us that Russia would have to intervene if Ukraine joined NATO. The context was then Ukrainian President Yushchenko applied to join NATO, and the Russians freaked out.
We respected the wish of Russia and did not consider Ukraine’s application to join NATO, instead “helping them reform” for the application process. Which was basically politically correct code for “No, because Russia.” Georgia got the same treatment, again for obvious reasons. Complaint was duly respected.
If they wanted to join the EU however...well it wasn’t going to happen anytime soon anyways. Ukraine is too corrupt. But what was rejected by Yanukovych was an Association agreement with the EU. Just that was too much for Russia’s fragile ego.
This is EXACTLY what I have been saying all along.
NATO certainly failed to defend Europe from an Islamic invasion. In fact it assisted the Islamic invasion into Kosovo. France will soon be an Islamic State with Nuclear Submarines. How the heck are the French gonna live without wine ?
I don’t know TCRLaf, Obama wasn’t sworn in until 2009.
There may be something to that warning date at that.
The RATs could go with that, but we have Hillary's reset button and Obama's promise of flexibility.
Sounds like we have one more thing to thank Obama for.
BS
Why not use Tass, Izvestia, Pravda or RT...oh, you do use them
“Us (today) NATO and EU = NWO (New World Order, aka AGENDA 21 - mixed in with Muzzie encroachment that has already taken over the EU.
No why on earth would the Russians in the Crimea and eastern Ukraine want to go with Russia over them?
Let’s remember that Putin didn’t “invade” the Crimea. He was asked to protect them from the above encroachment that would come through Ukraine. Note that his troops were deployed straight to the Ukraine border, protecting the Crimea - there was no fighting in the Crimea.
I wonder if the Sheeple will ever get over swallowing whatever the media/politicians spews as whole cloth - especially now when we can read all other sources -
Russia has been meddling in Ukrainian internal political affairs, deliberately dividing the Ukrainian population into antagonistic Russian and non-Russian groups, and murdering and oppressing non-Russian Ukrainians since decades before NATO ever came into existence. Russia has no moral or legal right to dictate the foreign affairs of the Ukraine or any of its population, pro-Russian or anti-Russian.
N.U.T.S. - Nasty Unfunny Totalitarian Socialists
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsFR8DbSRQE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sudCmrAsF4
And the U.S. and the EU haven't?
Whatever it is..
It’s the usual propaganda from the rogue state of Russia.
Dispelled many times. Making you a repeat propagandist when the spew you troll, you knows is BS.
Bush merely brought it up. NATO rejected membership for Georgia and Ukraine, quickly and outright.
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