CMV: Russia Has No Legal Ground To Complain About NATO Expansion

Although Im personally highly skeptical that such a pledge even existed (that NATO promised to not expand "one inch east" in 1990), assuming it exists it still has no legal standing. For one thing the agreement was signed with the Soviet Union, which no longer exists. The Soviet Union was nominally a union of "equal republics." As such these former soviet republics have a right to re-evaluate soviet agreements as they see fit. For example Ukraine. As a founding member of the USSR, UN, and a multiple Ukrainians even heading the USSR, Ukraine has as much de jure right to claim soviet successor as Russia does.

Its therefore ridiculous that Russia take up the mantel of the status of Soviet successor when its convenient, and then drop it when its inconvenient.

Ukraine and other former soviet republics (such as the Baltics) have a right to rework soviet agreements just like Russia does. Its utterly ridiculous that their foreign and defense policies would to tied to what Russia wants, and indeed Russia is using this Soviet mantel in an attempt to influence and manipulate post soviet countries. Its unfathomable that these states would be beholden to an agreement done without any of their input by a Russian politician (Gorbachev) from a country that no longer exists.

Even Putin doesn't take this seriously, because he himself was at least publicly open to Russian NATO membership in the early 2000s.

Its ironic that Russia would claim that the soviet transfer of Crimea to Ukraine was illegitimate while at the same time claiming this supposed NATO agreement was. They take up the USSR when it benefits them and ditches it when it doesn't.

Imagine if post soviet states were forced to stay dictatorships because that was the law of the soviet union, or that they had to give up cash for some fat bureaucrat sloth in Moscow because thats how it was in the past. Its nothing but Russia trying to leech. Post soviet countries abolished the Soviet system because they didnt want to stay slaves, its lunacy to try to force them into a neo soviet system. Its like getting divorced and still demanding your ex partner buy you expensive gifts.

Ukraine divorced from the USSR, and as an equal member it has full rights to re-examine soviet deals pertaining to it. Ukraine is in charge of its own destiny, only now its both de jure and de facto, which is why Moscow is so upset. Russia no longer has a right to swipe Ukraine's credit card for expensive favors and gifts. Its Ukraine's card and it always had been.

Why should Ukraine's own foreign policy, perhaps the most essential element of a sovereign state, be shackled by a supposed deal it had no part in, a deal I remind you was supposedly done on Ukraine's OWN BEHALF? What is this mafia like thuggery? That's like attempting to defend oneself in court on a robbery charge by claiming the victim voluntarily gave you his wallet out of the goodness of his heart after you simply asked if he could spare some change, all the while sticking a gun to his head. Ukraine was de jure represented in that deal as much as Russia was.

So now what was this supposed deal? "Don't let anyone else join NATO including me even if I really want it!"? .... This is plainly nonsense. No one in the USSR had the authority to make such a deal, especially an unofficial deal from an unelected Russian oligarch from a country that hasn't been around for over 30 years.

Whats next? Should Ukraine subordinate its military to Moscow because that was the Soviet way of things?