DISINFO: Nato forgot all the previously existing agreements, made former socialist countries join it and besieged Russia
SUMMARY
NATO forgot all the previously existing agreements, made some ungrateful former socialist republics join it and besieged Russia as a cackle of hyenas besieges a dying lion. On the contrary, a dying lion is still a lion. Russia began to regain its health and showed its power to the world. NATO, on the other hand, remains a threat to the mankind and drains the countries embittered by it into the hell of nuclear war
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation that NATO would have promised at the time of German reunification that the Alliance will not expand to the East. Back in 2014, Gorbachev rejected this claim: "The topic of ‘NATO expansion’ was not discussed at all, and it wasn’t brought up in those years. I say this with full responsibility." https://www.rbth.com/international/2014/10/16/mikhail_gorbachev_i_am_against_all_walls_40673.html. Furthermore, the claim about NATO "expansion" misrepresents the process of NATO enlargement. NATO does not "expand" but considers the applications of candidate countries which want to join. https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/topics_109141.htm. Claim about NATO besieging Russia ignores the facts of geography. Russia's land border is just over 20,000 kilometres long. Of that, 1,215 kilometres, or less than one-sixteenth, face current NATO members. Russia shares land borders with 14 countries (Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, China, North Korea). Only five of them are NATO members. Outside NATO territory, the Alliance only has a military presence in two places: Kosovo and Afghanistan. Both operations are carried out with a United Nations mandate, and therefore carry the approval of Russia, along with all other Security Council members. In contrast, Russia has military bases and soldiers in three countries – Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine – without the consent of their governments. www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/topics_111767.htm?#cl101, For background about NATO-Russia cooperation see: www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/topics_50090.htm,