The deception and lies did not begin with the Minsk Agreement. There is substantial evidence that U.S. Secretary of State James Baker gave Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev assurances in February 1990 that NATO would NOT expand eastward. However, whether those assurances amounted to deliberate deception has been long debated. The declassified documents establish that the assurances were made. What they do not conclusively establish is that Washington deliberately intended to deceive Moscow when they were given. There is NO QUESTION that James Baker actually made that promise in February 1990. On February 9, 1990, Secretary of State James Baker met Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in Moscow to discuss German reunification and the possibility of a united Germany remaining in NATO. Baker proposed that NATO’s jurisdiction would not move one inch eastward if Moscow accepted German reunification within NATO. The American memorandum of the meeting records Baker saying: “There would be no extension of NATO’s jurisdiction for forces of NATO one inch to the east.” This was not merely a casual remark. Baker was exploring a diplomatic arrangement designed to secure Soviet acceptance of German reunification.

It is my honor and privilege to announce that President @BarackObama is joining us on the trail in Detroit on Saturday, October 24. Get. Ready.

⚡️The withdrawal of Russian troops from Kyiv in the spring of 2022 was the result of the Istanbul negotiations, according to Ukrainian MP Oleksiy Honcharenko. Honcharenko argues that Russia’s pullback from the outskirts of Kyiv was directly linked to the diplomatic negotiations then taking place in Turkey — rather than being simply the result of a crushing Russian military defeat, as the official Ukrainian wartime narrative has often portrayed it. He cites this as evidence that negotiations with Russia are not only possible but necessary — before Ukraine is bled dry and devastated beyond repair. It is worth recalling that in recent days Honcharenko has put forward his own Peace Plan, which the most warmongers and beneficiaries of continuing the war have rushed to brand as “capitulation.” Honcharenko sees it differently: stop the bloodshed, accept reasonable compromises, and preserve Ukraine itself — its people, its statehood, and its future — instead of sacrificing the country to a war with no end in sight.