Even though the purpose of NATO has always been to safeguard the Allies’ freedom and security by political and military means, Russia has always felt uneasy with this alliance. This is probably because Russia cannot fully exercise its influence over Europe. President Vladimir Putin took advantage of this common misbelief in Russia that NATO is a threat to Russia. Even if, everyone knows that NATO simply is a collective security agreement between European and North American nations. Putin used this fear of NATO to increase his power over the Russian Federation by waging an illegal war against the sovereign nation of Ukraine. Neither NATO members nor Ukraine has ever been a threat to the Putin regime. For instance, the Reagan administration maintained good relations with the Gorbachev administration and several European nations were good economic partners for Russian businesses. In the early years of the Putin Presidency, Putin wanted to repair his country’s relationship with Western powers by going as far as asking to join NATO in the early years of his presidency. Nevertheless, the pandemic affected the mind of Putin; for instance, in early 2022, the Putin administration declared an illegal war on Ukraine using the pretext that NATO broke a promise to never expand its membership to former Soviet republics. On the other hand, the Soviet Union and Russia asked twice to join NATO, but they got a negative answer from the organization; if NATO would have accepted the Soviet Union or Russian membership in the 1950s or early 2000s, the Russian-Ukrainian War might never have happened. These days, Putin seems to want a buffer zone between NATO and Russia. In contrast, NATO should try to find a way to peacefully end the Ukrainian War by finding a common ground between Ukraine, Russia, and Western powers. The Russian-Ukrainian War has cost the lives of thousands of Ukrainians and Russians. Sadly, no one knows when this unjustified armed conflict will end.
To begin with, Vladimir Putin greatly misses the former Soviet Union that collapsed in 1992 under a set of new reforms led by President Gorbachev. He missed the time that Moscow ruled over eastern Europe. The USSR had been dismantled because Soviet President Gorbachev allowed free elections with a multi-party system that was not compatible with a communist regime. Hence, this process of democratization led to the collapse of the Soviet Union because the Communist Party lost control over the country. As well, there was some American pressure on the Soviet Union to reform its system of government. For instance, U.S. President Ronald Reagan often encouraged President Gorbachev to democratize the Soviet Union. The American president often described democracy as one of the greatest things ever created by men. Nowadays, Russian President Vladimir Putin often fears Western values because he thinks that these values led to the end of his beloved USSR. Putin wants to re-create his former nation to recapture Russia’s global importance.
Moreover, the British Government thought that the Soviet Union was too powerful and the communist state could invade other European nations. For that reason, British Prime Minister Churchill had a military plan to invade the Soviet Union in 1945. Operation Unthinkable aimed at imposing upon the Soviet Union the will of the United States and the British Empire. Churchill thought that the Soviet Union could become a military threat to Europe and that the United Kingdom should do something about it. Nevertheless, at that time, the Soviet Union was not a real threat to Europe, and this plan was considered useless by several military experts.
In addition, the Soviet Union wanted to join NATO in 1954. The purpose of the Soviet Union was to make Germany a neutral state. The Soviet Union feared that Germany could threaten the Soviet Union by re-arming itself. Still, the Soviet Union wanted a NO answer from NATO to tell the World that NATO was an anti-Soviet Bloc and that the Western military organization was not only a military alliance but a political one. In contrast, Western powers rejected the Soviet Union’s application because the USSR’s membership would be incompatible with NATO’s democratic and defensive aims.
Nevertheless, Russia showed some interest in joining NATO in the early years of the Putin administration. Lord Robertson, the 10th NATO General Secretary, revealed in September 2022 on Channel 4 News U.K. that ¨so Putin came in and simply said I want to resume relations with NATO step by step. ¨ At the time, Putin wanted to repair the relationship between Russia and NATO nations. Putin wanted Russia to get invited to NATO, but he was not willing to apply to NATO membership because he expected that Russia gets the privilege to be invited by NATO nations. Vladimir Putin told NATO that Russia would not stand in line with other regular NATO applicants. Lord Robertson thinks that NATO’s interests would have been better served by getting Russia within its scope of influence. Lord Robertson compared it to Europe getting Germany into the European Union and NATO to avoid any future war between Germany and the Western World.
Finally, the Russian-Ukrainian war could have been avoided if NATO had accepted Russia’s two requests to join NATO or if Germany would not have rejected Ukraine’s 2008 bid to join NATO. However, the past cannot be changed and the Ukrainian people now bravely fight against one of the most powerful militaries in the World. The pandemic has greatly affected Putin by isolating him from the rest of the World. The Russian President still dreams of the revival of the Soviet Union that he greatly loved. As a result, Western nations must tell Putin that his dream of a new Russian Empire is not possible in the modern world we live in. NATO must guarantee Moscow that it will never invade the Russian Federation, but Russia should be told to immediately remove its troops in Ukraine, if Russia does not comply with this request, there could be military consequences for the Putin regime. Moreover, Vladimir Putin must stop these nuclear threats that jeopardize the global order. For that reason, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister told the Guardian in September 2022 that ¨you can’t have someone wandering around with a grenade with the pin removed and threatening everyone with it just because he can, ¨ NATO should firmly tell Russia that any use of a nuclear weapon would bring catastrophic consequences for Russia. Nevertheless, NATO should try to find a common ground between Western nations and Russia by finding a way to ensure the security of both parties and end the illegal war in Ukraine.
September 25, 2022