NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg acknowledged last week that Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine last year to prevent NATO from expanding into the country.
“The background was that President Putin declared in the autumn of 2021, and actually sent a draft treaty that they wanted NATO to sign, to promise no more NATO enlargement,” Stoltenberg told EU Parliament officials, referring to a series of security proposals Russia sent to the US and NATO in December 2021.
“That was what he sent us,” Stoltenberg continued. “And was a precondition for not invade Ukraine. Of course we didn’t sign that.” Chief among Russia’s demands was a guarantee that Ukraine would never join NATO, an issue the Biden administration refused to address.
Stoltenberg made the comments when discussing Finland’s recent admittance into NATO and Sweden’s expected membership. The NATO chief said the “opposite” of what Putin wanted happened after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“So he went to war to prevent NATO, more NATO, close to his borders. He has got the exact opposite. He has got more NATO presence in eastern part of the alliance and he has also seen that Finland has already joined the alliance and Sweden will soon be a full member,” Stoltenberg said.
The NATO chief’s comments contradict the claim made constantly by the US government and many media outlets that the Russian invasion of Ukraine was “unprovoked.”
Stoltenberg mentioned other proposals put forward by Russia before the invasion. “He wanted us to remove our military infrastructure in all Allies that have joined NATO since 1997, meaning half of NATO, all the Central and Eastern Europe, we should remove NATO from that part of our alliance, introducing some kind of B, or second class membership. We rejected that,” he said.
Stoltenberg should be arrested and sentenced to life in prison for war crimes. Karma will get him…
But he’s “only following orders.” 😏
If an antiwar person would have said the same thing, it would be down rated by the Goog and Meta censors as “malinformation”‘ …
Our boy Stolty seems to have gone to the same foot-in-mouth uni as president Biden …
there aren’t any real antiwar persons
Perhaps, though I think the Dalai Lama may be anti-war…
Meanwhile, back on the farm, we have the war on poverty, the war on drugs, the war ….., in short, the entire American mindset.
When the NFL has their draft, the teams call their area where they have their people figuring out who to draft the “war room”. Players talk about going to war with each other. Fuck, it just never ends.
You know a society is in deep shite when everything is couched in terms of “war”. .
Speaking of “down on the farm” Tibet was a feudal aristocracy before the communists took over in 1959. Most of the people were serfs who worked the land for the Lamas. The Dalai Lama may be antiwar, but he and his predecessors had no problem with feudal bondage.
Just like you have no problem with invasion, conquest, occupation, and annexation.
Do you have a problem with the Chinese communists overthrowing the feudal overlords of Tibet?
Noticing that the Chinese communists invaded, conquered, occupied, and annexed Tibet and replaced its feudal lords with their own isn’t a “problem.” It’s an “observation.”
Tibet was “invaded, conquered, occupied, and annexed” by the Chinese empire centuries ago. The Chinese communists reasserted control after the chaos of the Chinese Civil war. To my knowledge no country ever recognized an independent Tibet in modern times.Still, the Tibetan people have the right to reject Chinese rule, if they so choose. But I don’t see any evidence of mass based resistance to Chinese rule beyond a CIA created government in exile that even the Dalai Lama no longer supports and sporadic discontent among the monastic and landlord classes. Xinjiang is a different story. It appears there is credible evidence of discontent among the Uyghurs. But that does not seem to be the case in Tibet where the Tibetans seem to welcome the benefits of modernization, post-feudal society and assimilation. Do you have any concrete evidence that the common people of Tibet want to overthrow Chinese communist rule?
“Do you have any concrete evidence that the common people of Tibet want to overthrow Chinese communist rule?”
Other than the fact that they’re occasionally able to put on a brief protest before being suppressed and abducted by the occupation troops? Nope.
I can recognize and support genuine national resistance movements and recognize documented crimes against humanity, like the persecution of the Uyghurs in Xinjiang. But the small, sporadic demonstrations I have seen in Tibet do not look a mass movement. I can’t know for certain how deep- the movements roots are – and I don’t see how you can either.
I don’t claim that I can.
I just claim to oppose any or all of invasion, conquest, occupation and annexation, regardless of who does it to whom. I oppose it when the PRC does it to Tibet. I oppose it when Ukraine does it to LPR/DPR. I oppose it when Russia does it to Ukraine. I oppose it when the US does it to Iraq or Afghanistan (or for that matter Hawaii).
Opposing all warmongering sh*bags is easier than trying to figure out which ones to support.
If I was around in 1893 or 1898 I would have opposed the US annexation of Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Cuba and the Philippines. The Filipinos and the Cubans fought back and eventually won their independence. The native Hawaiians and the Puerto Ricans did not fight as long or as hard. Today their descendants prefer to be part of the USA. Their choice. The Palestinians chose differently, like the Filipinos and the Cubans.
After the first few weeks of the Ukraine war I became convinced that the Ukrainians supported a genuine national resistance movement that will not quit until the Russians leave. The Tibetans have not shown they want to cut the cord with China. If they do, I will recognize their right to do so (like I did with the Taliban) and if I like their movement, I will support it (like I did with the Vietnamese).
Parenthtically, it really doesn’t matter any more what happens on the battlefield. I still expect the US to cut aid to Ukraine in about a year and the Russians to defeat the Ukrainian army. But that will make no difference in the final outcome any more than US and Soviet military superiority did in Afghanistan. It is that hearts and minds thing. The harder the Russians fight, the stronger the Ukrainian resistance will become. This is an asymmetric war where the invaders needs to conquer, occupy and pacify. The defender only needs to survive and resist to prevail. It may take years or even generations. But Putin started something he never should have started. Russia can’t win this one.
“Opposing .. is easier than trying to figure out which ones to support.”
At long last, you have a point.
True, but by the 1950’s the Dalai Lama had come to the conclusion that Tibet had to modernize and join the larger community of the 20th century.
So he wasn’t against modernization per se. He was against the way the Chinese government had decided to carry it out.
But the emancipated Tibetan serfs didn’t agitate for the return of the Dalai Lama and the landowning clerics. Tibet seems kinda like Hawaii or Puerto Rico where the US took over by force but the locals seem to be OK with being part of the USA. The Uyghurs in Xinjiang have a history of opposing Chinese rule and assimilation. But not the Tibetans. Even the Dalai Lama has come over to the position that Tibet should remain part of China.
“But the emancipated Tibetan serfs didn’t agitate for the return of the Dalai Lama and the landowning clerics.”
They were still doing so at least into this century.
NATO has somehow included the Pacific Ocean into it’s realm in order to menace China.
way to go north atlantic guys!
Well, with the melting of the Polar ice resulting from the ignored menace over the horizon, it’s all good 😉
“Stoltenberg Acknowledges Putin Invaded Ukraine Over NATO Expansion”
Amazing admission of guilt!
Yeah, but still Putin is a monster and the war was “unprovoked and unjustified.” Ugh. …Barf. …Puke. (Sarcasm)
dude stop being a dick. i am the only one allowed to be a dick.
LOL, Love you, spy. Thanks for reminding me that you’re a dick. I wrote up compelling arguments relating to important things about “dicks” and why I should be bigger… Then erased them all when I realized (in horror) that it was definitely a situation where the Russian Vodka was doing all the talking.
(sarcasm)
Stoltenberg actually seems to be gloating about it. But he is probably on the wrong side of public opinion. Leaders eventually have to answer to their own constituencies.
Stoltenberg’s constituency is in the Pentagon and the White House. He has nothing to worry about, as long as he doesn’t assert that Russia’s concern over NATO expansion is justified.
At one point he explains that expanding NATO makes us stronger and prevents war, forgetting that it just caused one.
Where are all the usual suspects to tell us how Stoltenberg is wrong and/or lying?
This appears to be one of the few Troll Free Comments Sections today. Didn’t even see any in the previous Counter Offensive article.
The Idiot in Chief belches another banality for consumption by the Idiotettes.
Meanwhile, Elizabeth Warren announces that she has come down with a case of brain rot with her call to investigate Musk for not allowing Zelensky to murder Russians in Crimea.
Sarte would marvel at the utterly depraved dark comedy that is the democratic party in The United States of Buffoonery.
Idiocracy?
Democracy for Idiots.
It’s also a movie. Check it out while you blaze one.
It is not the same. Finland and Sweden were already cooperating with NATO, clearly on side. That “new” border is in the frozen wastes of the far North.
In contrast, Ukraine was moving from friendly to NATO member, and it is a huge, valuable area of rich land, industry, and people right up against the belly of Russia.
NATO may actually not know the difference, because they really are fools. But then again, maybe they are just liars, we know that about them too.
Slowly slowly the truth is unveiled.
You read the headline and you think the guy just stuck his foot in his mouth. But you read down and he then takes the Bear’s nose and rubs it in shit.
“So he went to war to prevent NATO, more NATO, close to his borders. He has got the exact opposite. He has got more NATO presence in eastern part of the alliance and he has also seen that Finland has already joined the alliance and Sweden will soon be a full member,” Stoltenberg said.
And this is what is described as a “defensive” military alliance?