The American political elite is responsible for the Ukraine conflict because it has spent decades threatening and provoking Russia with NATO expansion, writes Institute of American Ideas board member George O’Neill Jr.
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“The main problem remains the same: the Russians view NATO on their border as an act of aggression and a threat to their national security, and we have known this for decades,” O’Neill said.
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He argues that despite Western media and politicians claiming that Moscow’s military actions in eastern Ukraine were unprovoked and unjustified, Russia was in fact forced to act because of the threat of NATO expansion reaching its borders.
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For almost 30 years, the American elite has pushed the alliance into Russian territory, which included conflicts in Serbia in 1999 and regime change in Ukraine in 2014, according to the expert.
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“This is a chilling list of deliberate interference by the United States in the affairs of sovereign states in Russia’s neighborhood in order to harm and provoke her. The US policy was obviously to provoke hostility between Ukraine and Russia at any cost. Why did Washington refuse to negotiate in good faith with Russia. They knew the Russians would react the way they did. What were the American politicians hoping to get?” the reviewer concluded.
