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6 Facts About NATO & Why Putin Felt So Threatened By It

2022-02-28 , 11:36 am

One of the reasons why Russian President Vladimir Putin decided to invade Ukraine is because of the NATO membership promised to Ukraine back in 2008.

Putin keeps saying that the expansion of NATO is a threat to Russia. But is NATO really that dangerous?

Here are 6 facts about the military alliance and how that might affect Russia. Spoiler alert: it doesn’t just harm Russia militarily, but also politically.

What Is NATO’s Original Aim?

Yes, this article is going to be a mini-history lesson. But knowing the history behind NATO and Russia is crucial to understanding their conflict today, so bear with me.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation is a military alliance between 28 European countries and 2 North American countries. However, when it was first founded in 1949, it only had 12 members. It had slowly expanded over the years, which I will touch on later.

But right now, the first important thing you need to know is this: NATO was originally founded to prevent the threat of Soviet expansion in Europe after World War 2.

So yes, their original purpose was partly to stop the Soviet Union from expanding and making Europe communist.

Reader Bao: OK, but the Soviet Union was dissolved in 1991. So why is NATO still around?

Very good question, Reader Bao! The Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 and split into different independent republics, like Ukraine and Latvia. This meant that Russia no longer had the power to hold onto its old states, let alone expand its territory.

So why did NATO continue to exist?

Encouraging European Political Integration

With the collapse of the Soviet Union, there was suddenly a lot more independent states in Europe. NATO thus took on a more political role, and wanted to integrate the European countries together politically.

This basically means that they wanted to make sure democracy would thrive in Europe, especially in the newly independent states, so that communism won’t be a threat anymore.

This thus brings me to my next point…

NATO’s Expansion Toward Russia Throughout The Years (Despite No Threat Present)…

To integrate the countries, NATO naturally decided to expand and include more member states.

After all, NATO is led by a whole bunch of democratic powers. It’ll be hard to be under the protection of NATO and not adhere to democratic ideals.

It’s just like being in a club of durian lovers, who want to spread the love of durian everywhere. They swear to come together and protect you with durian spikes if anyone bullies you. You’d probably swear your love to durians too, even if you didn’t like durian in the first place.

Reader Bao: Did you just compare NATO to durian lovers?

I know, it’s a weird analogy. But you get my point.

NATO’s expansion meant that they were moving closer and closer to Russia, which makes sense because they’re trying to integrate all the countries that were once under Russia.

Even though this made Europe happy (because everyone loves stability and security), it made Russia very concerned.

…Means That Russia Has Less Satellite States Now

You see, the West is still convinced that Putin wants to re-establish the Soviet Union. Not surprising, seeing how Russia annexed Crimea and he is talking about Ukraine like it isn’t an independent country.

In return, this means that Putin is suspicious about NATO’s expansion, because it is eating away at Russia’s sphere of influence. With more and more countries surrounding Russia becoming BFFs of the West, Russia is afraid that the West will eventually come for them and overthrow their government.

Basically, think of Russia as the leader of the durian haters. When more and more haters are converted into durian lovers, who’s to say that the durian lovers won’t start attacking the remaining, few haters?

This actually does seem like a legit security concern. As the Los Angeles Times said, “Thirty years ago, Russia had a buffer zone of satellite states to its west. Now it has only the unimpressive presence of Belarus.”

Russia is surrounded by the presence of NATO all around its borders, from American and British advisors in Ukraine to NATO troop exercises in states once part of the Soviet Union.

This is a big no-no for Putin, who has been in power since 1999 and would like to keep it that way. And this is where Ukraine comes into play.

Ukraine As A Possible ‘Springboard’ Into Russia

Ukraine and Russia are basically neighbours. Russia fears that if Ukraine really joins NATO, the West might use Ukraine’s new BFF status to enter Russia through Ukraine.

The West could then potentially use Ukraine to overthrow Putin and establish a new, West-approved government in Russia.

Of course, this was pretty improbable, given how nobody really wants war with a nuclear superpower. But Russia is paranoid, so they did what anyone would do: write a 7,000-word article on how Russia and Ukraine is one big happy family.

And when that failed to stop NATO from considering Ukraine membership, write a list of demands to the United States.

Oh, wait, sorry. Not everyone would do that, just Putin.

NATO’s Refusal To Rollback and Give Guarantee that Ukraine Won’t Be Allowed in NATO

Russia sent the US a list of its demands for defusing the Russo-Ukraine crisis, after alarm bells were rung over Russia’s gathering of troops along the border.

The demands include a binding promise that Ukraine will never become a member of NATO, as well as the removal of all NATO troops and weapons from the 14 Eastern European countries that have joined the alliance since 1997. So basically the countries around Russia that were once part of the USSR.

Obviously, NATO wasn’t going to allow that. This seemed to be the final straw that convinced Putin of the threat NATO posed to him, and thus war broke out.

I mean, there’s obviously a lot of other factors at play too. But this is undeniably one of the bigger reasons.

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So, What Is NATO Going To Do Now?

It is obvious that NATO did have a part to play in starting this whole mess. So what are they going to do?

Simple. They’re going to do nothing.

You see, even though NATO refuses to give the guarantee that Ukraine won’t be allowed to join, they also don’t want to help Ukraine.

And since Ukraine isn’t actually in NATO, Article 5, which makes members obligated to defend each other in the event of war, doesn’t apply.

NATO also doesn’t want to risk a European war, so they’re simply going to implement another kind of NATO: No Action, Talk Only.

But this is accurate as of 28 February 2022. With mounting international pressure, who knows what’s going to happen next?