Natylie’s Place: Understanding Russia
November 18, 2021
By Natylie Baldwin

On October 18th, Russia announced it would formally suspend its mission with the NATO alliance, including ending official communication. This is a significant event but not totally shocking to anyone who has been paying attention to post-Soviet Russian relations with NATO.  It’s important to look at what led up to Russia deciding it had enough and that it was no longer worth having an official relationship with the western military alliance as there is a lengthy historical context to the breakdown.

NATO had just expelled eight Russian diplomats for espionage activities but provided no public evidence or details on these serious allegations.  But this was just the immediate event that provided the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back.

Post-Cold War Triumphalism

The problem started with the triumphalist attitude that eventually prevailed in Washington after the end of the Cold War.  President Ronald Reagan intentionally took the approach during negotiations with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev that ended the Cold War that doing so would be in the interests of both countries.  It was characterized at the time as a negotiated settlement that benefited all parties involved and not a defeat.  Reagan’s successor George H.W. Bush adopted the same attitude until it was time to campaign for his reelection, during which he bragged that the U.S. had won the Cold War.

In the 1990’s, the Clinton administration, encouraged by foreign policy hawks,  greedy defense contractors and domestic reelection politics, expanded NATO to former Warsaw Pact countries Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic.  This was a violation of verbal assurances given by U.S. Secretary of State James Baker, along with other western government officials, during 1991 negotiations with Gorbachev that NATO would not expand “one inch eastward.”  This assurance was made in order to get Gorbachev to accept a unified Germany in NATO given the deep historical memory of the Germans having invaded Russia twice in the 20th century, the second time resulting in 27 million deaths and destruction of a third of the Soviet Union.  But NATO didn’t stop there and expanded by seven more countries, right up to Russia’s border, by 2004.

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Dear CCI Friends,

Most of our politicians — Democrats and Republicans — have allegiance to the huge military-industrial complex (MIC). The result has been blank check support for numerous U.S.-NATO backed costly wars across our planet, trillions of dollars in debt, and dozens of wrecked economies worldwide — all in the alleged name of U.S. “global leadership.”

One balm I’ve found: As many of you may remember, I’ve been watching the new Quincy Institute and its President, Andrew Bacevich, for the past year and half. Bacevich, a West Pointer and Colonel in the U.S. Army, broke with the ranks and began telling the truth about U.S. military actions, NATO and our national indebtedness several years ago. He lost his only son who was following in his footsteps, in the most recent Iraq war. Bacevich knows from whence he speaks.

Two years ago Bacevich helped create the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, America’s only think tank dedicated to the unvarnished truth about America’s continuous wars abroad. The institute is named for John Quincy Adams, who famously proclaimed “America goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy” in a speech that has been quoted ever since to justify non-interference by the United States in the affairs of other nations.

Bacevich has assembled top specialists from academia and journalism, with military and regional expertise — all truth tellers who continuously address the most important current issues from an independent point of view.

In addition to delivering daily articles and sound bites on “hot spots” they deliver thoughtful analysis through Zoom webinars, and short videos. Quincy is a tremendous educational resource. Anatol Lieven, their Russia and regional specialist, is on staff there and has this cover story on the U.S.-Ukraine-Russia in this week’s Nation:
Ukraine: The Most Dangerous Problem in the World.

I urge you to join the Quincy team in its effort to educate our population.  You can sign up for their weekly email updates here:  https://quincyinst.org/subscribe/.

Pass it on to others!

Sharon Tennison
Center for Citizen Initiatives

Dear CCI Friends,

How is it that American citizens want diplomacy instead of conflict, good relations with other countries, their tax dollars spent toward noble causes … and yet our Congress still votes for the obscene types of expenditures below? Do you have an explanation for this? How does it happen?

Let’s raise our voices against any activities that contribute to the waging of wars, killing of human beings in other countries, ruining other nations’ economies, leaving destitute human beings without food, hospitals, schools or means of surviving in their parts of the world.

Ponder the facts below … this is how our tax dollars are being spent.

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Dear CCI Followers,

The following article should come as no surprise. The whole world has watched as our U.S. leaders have time and time again, boxed in Russia and kept China in a manufacturing mode only. Those days are over, never to return. We in the U.S. are definitely in decline and both Russia and China are on rapid incline. They didn’t intend to be partners, but it works to the advantage of both who are now cooperating on all levels.

Given the thwarted intentions of current Washington elites, this produces a very dangerous world in which to negotiate our future. Russia and China both push for a multipolar world while U.S. leaders insist on a unipolar world run by NATO.

We citizens in the United States must make our collective voices of sanity heard. We don’t want a unipolar world under NATO, we want a fair and multipolar world where all nations sit down together to settle the challenges that we all face. There is so much good we could do if we all cooperate and none insist on the lion’s share of the wealth and privilege!

What major action can we take to get the attention of our leaders and the world? We are ready, COVID or no COVID. This issue facing us is far more lethal than any virus or contagion!

What are your thoughts?

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Dear CCI Friends,

Our friend, Ambassador Jack Matlock speaks out as a member of the American Committee for US-Russia Accord (ACURA). I am also a board member of this group.

Ambassador Matlock leaves no room for debate on this issue. What is being done is patently dangerous to the survival of our world. Our side is deliberately playing with the potential for Nuclear War by its dangerous words and its extremely dangerous actions in numerous areas throughout the world.

Write a brief comment to us here at CCI and we will get the collection of your comments to a number of reputable sources … and better still, write directly to anyone, any newspaper in which you can get printed.

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