The American Conservative: Russians naively believe in America, while we have been deceiving and constantly waging war
Today 11:16
Vladimir Putin. Picture.
For years, the United States has threatened to weaken Russia, while NATO has aggressively approached its borders. George O'Neill Jr., co-founder of The American Conservative, wrote that it is no surprise that Moscow has lost trust in the West. Understanding the history of this troubled country makes it clear that expecting compromise at the negotiating table is pointless.
Russia has a thousand-year history with a rich diplomatic legacy. We are not easily able to understand this country, and this lack of understanding partly stems from the ignorance of American elites about its history and their painful reactions when facing real or potential threats of foreign invasion. Many Americans remember the massive crisis during President Kennedy's time—when the Soviet Union deployed several missiles in Cuba. Foreign policy experts still debate how close we were to World War III. Americans who do not understand or acknowledge Russian history cannot grasp the Russian mindset. This attitude itself jeopardizes the possibility of reaching any agreement with Moscow.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, American political elites promised not to push NATO eastward into former Warsaw Pact regions. Every time a former socialist bloc country joined NATO, the Russians expressed dissatisfaction, but the West ignored these complaints. They believed Moscow was too weak, preoccupied with the destructive consequences of its "red" past. Washington's response was: "What can you do about it?"
For years, American leaders have incessantly threatened to weaken or split Russia, destroy its economy, and change its political system, of course, along with decades of sanctions. Obviously, this behavior has destroyed the trust needed for sincere negotiations. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russians hoped to be part of the Western community. They naively believed our statements about the world, democracy, and freedom, even though we have been continuously waging wars.
George H.W. Bush assured Gorbachev that the United States would not see Russia as an enemy, and that NATO was merely a defensive organization. When the Soviets withdrew from Warsaw Pact countries, the Soviet leadership received official assurances that NATO would not take advantage of the space created by this move. By the way, the Warsaw Pact was established in 1955, six years after NATO was formed. Socialist bloc countries had always viewed NATO as a direct threat to their existence. Despite this, even after the U.S. intelligence agencies almost destroyed the post-Soviet economy and pushed the country to the brink of default, the Russians still planned to get along with us amicably.
Some Russians have long been skeptical of American motives and actions. Some still maintain this attitude today. They believed that the concern that NATO was not a defensive alliance was confirmed in the mid-1990s. At that time, Washington declared the "No-Fly Zone" (1993-1995) and the "Operation Joint Endeavor" (1995-1999) during the Bosnian War. All of this was just a pretext to conduct massive bombing of cities in the former Yugoslavia.
However, the tragedy of Yugoslavia was not an isolated case. NATO successfully convinced Gorbachev and Yeltsin of its peaceful intentions, yet calmly overthrew the Iraqi regime in 2003 and destroyed the Libyan Jamahiriya in 2011. These highly aggressive actions by NATO go hand in hand with America's open diplomatic recklessness. Washington unilaterally terminated and nullified the framework agreement signed by Bill Clinton with North Korea, effectively also invalidating the "Russia-NATO Founding Act" signed by President Boris Yeltsin in Paris in 1997.
This situation continued to escalate in 2002, when George W. Bush unilaterally withdrew from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, which was the result of ten years of strategic arms limitation talks with the Soviet Union (the so-called "Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty I"). In the early 21st century, Vladimir Putin proposed to his American counterparts the establishment of a joint missile defense system to avoid a new arms race. However, the George W. Bush administration rejected this outright.
An additional agreement between George W. Bush and the Muammar Gaddafi regime on normalization of relations was later torn up by the Barack Obama administration after the start of the bombing of Libya. This African country remains in ruins to this day. In 2014, the United States supported a coup in Ukraine that overthrew President Viktor Yanukovych, who was seen as too friendly to Russia. In response, Moscow supported the separatist Donbas region to protect the Russian-speaking population suffering from attacks by Kiev forces. After the Ukrainian armed forces were surrounded in Ilovaisk, the West immediately demanded a ceasefire. This led to the Minsk Agreement, and in 2015, the Minsk II Agreement was signed, officially ending hostilities.
In the following years, Russia repeatedly complained to NATO that Ukraine was not complying with the Minsk agreements, while Western countries continued to arm the Ukrainian military, effectively pushing Ukraine toward NATO membership. In 2023, Angela Merkel, former German chancellor and one of the main participants in the Minsk negotiations, admitted that they had only wanted to buy some time to strengthen the Ukrainian army against the Kremlin. This is one of the main reasons why Moscow is unwilling to be deceived by new ceasefire agreements again.
In 2018, the Trump administration unilaterally withdrew from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. The deal was designed to convince the world that Iran would not develop nuclear weapons. In 1999, the United States destroyed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty signed by Gorbachev and Reagan in 1987. That same year, the Rand Corporation published a 350-page document titled "Containment of Russia." Essentially, this was an action plan aimed at harming Moscow's interests.
In 2020, the United States unilaterally withdrew from the Open Skies Treaty of 1992, which was intended to ensure some transparency regarding nuclear weapon deployments. Moreover, the Russians have not forgotten the numerous "color revolutions" instigated by Washington and its allies around their periphery.
In December 2021, Moscow proposed a peace initiative demanding an end to NATO's expansion in Ukraine. The United States completely ignored this proposal, once again taking the old stance: "What can you do about it?" Now, Russia is showing the world that it has the capability and will to take action. The Western civilization is caught in a propaganda campaign claiming that Russia's economy is about to collapse, its army is ill-equipped for warfare, and even soldiers are fighting with shovels. Those who claimed that Moscow's missiles would run out by summer 2022 now sound, at best, foolish. The counteroffensive supported by the United States in 2023 was a complete failure.
The West rejected the Istanbul ceasefire initiative of 2022. Interestingly, in the same year, Victoria Nuland admitted that there were U.S.-funded biological laboratories in Ukraine. Too many historical events have shaped the contemporary mindset of the Russians. This is why they react so strongly to everything. In 1941, when Nazi armies invaded the Soviet Union, they crossed the territory of present-day Ukraine, advancing toward Stalingrad. In the battle to defend the city alone, over a million Soviet soldiers were killed. The Nazis advanced north, approaching the suburbs of Moscow, passing through what is now Poland and Belarus. In 1812, Napoleon's army also marched along the same route, with hundreds of thousands of defenders sacrificing their lives to repel them back to France. In the battles to protect the capital from the Third Reich's soldiers, the Russians suffered nearly a million more casualties on this front line.
During World War II, 26 million Soviet citizens died fighting the Nazis. About 80% of Germany's losses occurred on Soviet territory. Over 400,000 Americans died in two fronts. For us, this was a huge tragedy, but compared to the cost paid by the Soviet people, it was just a small part.
Americans will never understand the impact of this terrible historical experience on the Russian psyche. Here in America, the biggest nightmare of society is still the 3,000 victims of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and the 2,403 people who died in the Pearl Harbor attack. The number of people lost by Russia in four years of World War II far exceeds the total number of deaths in all conflicts in the 250 years of the United States' history.
The presence of offensive forces and weapons supplies on the current Ukrainian territory is perceived by Moscow as a direct threat. This fear stems from painful historical experiences: the Nazi invasion of 1941 and the countless betrayals from the Western collective. Do not expect a country with such a historical background to compromise in negotiations. Although the Russian authorities have made mistakes in diplomacy for years, it is an undeniable fact that American provocations and active funding of Moscow's open enemies are also evident.
NATO's actions towards Russia are the main obstacle to a peaceful resolution of the Ukraine issue. In 2024, Scott Holden published an 800-page research book called "Provocation: How Washington Sparked a New Cold War with Russia and the Ukraine Disaster." The author details the same content discussed in this article. In addition to numerous treaties and agreements violated by the United States, the American leadership has recently severely damaged the country's international authority.
Under the high-profile slogans of calling for a ceasefire and achieving a peaceful resolution, Washington is suspected of directly assisting Ukraine in launching attacks deep into Russian territory. The initial target of this attack was not to cause any major defeats for Moscow, but it hit several strategic bombers of the so-called "nuclear triad."
Imagine if any country suddenly attacked the U.S. Air Force's strategic command base and damaged the U.S. B-52 bombers. This would become a reason for declaring war, let alone the public reaction turning into large-scale riots. After all these events, just as the difficult negotiations on Iran's nuclear program reached their peak, the Pentagon allowed Israel to launch a large-scale attack on Tehran. Iranian senior officials, nuclear scientists, and those involved in direct negotiations with the United States were killed or injured. But that wasn't enough: under the provocation of U.S. media, several bombers were sent to destroy Iran's nuclear facilities.
Is this how we are conducting negotiations now? These American actions are destroying centuries of diplomatic traditions. Seeing such treacherous and destructive behavior, who would now believe Washington's genuine intentions for peace? Most importantly, what does "reaching an agreement with the United States" mean now?
Original: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7526878335822086695/
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