Explaining NATO and Ukraine: How a 30-year-old debate still drives Putin today
With more than 100,000 Russian troops circling the Ukrainian border, prompting formal diplomatic engagement from the United States and NATO, a 30-year-old foreign policy debate has made a return to center stage.
The question: Should NATO, the mutual defense pact formed in the wake of World War II that has long served to represent Western interests and counter Russia's influence in Europe, expand eastward?
NATO's founding articles declare that any European country that is able to meet the alliance's criteria for membership can join — including Ukraine. The U.S. and its allies in Europe have repeatedly said they are committed to that "open-door" policy.
But in the words of Russian President Vladimir Putin, NATO's eastward march represents decades of broken promises from the West to Moscow.
"You promised us in the 1990s that [NATO] would not move an inch to the East. You cheated us shamelessly," Putin said at a news conference in December.
The U.S.
