Dear Editor,
The situation in Europe, particularly on the Russian/Ukraine border involving NATO countries as well is rapidly spinning out of control. If not stopped soonest, this can lead to an open war between Russia and NATO countries. That is the most dangerous thing that can happen because Russia and NATO states possess thousands of nuclear weapons. A clash between these forces can certainly evolve into a nuclear war which can lead to total world destruction.
There are hardly any civic forces that can act as a counter pressure to stop this decline. The Peace Movement in the world has been crushed. Since its failure to halt the attacks on Iraq it has practically disappeared.
This is the time for mass action. People must raise their voices to call a halt to this madness make no mistake we are all involved.
We cannot depend on the World Leaders to do so. Most of them outside of Russia and the NATO alliance are too afraid of one thing or another. I have looked at the “debate” in the Security Council and have heard the statement of the UN Secretary General and I feel that they have all avoided to deal with the root of the real problem.
The cause of the situation today is the total disregard of Russia’s security concerns. If this is not settled who knows where this will end.
Why is Russia feeling so insecure? Are there concerns unfounded? They are not.
When the Berlin wall fell and the Soviet Union was persuaded to withdraw their forces from the Eastern European Socialist and former Socialist states it was given the assurance that NATO would not move one inch from where it was in West Germany. They even said they would not move into the former East German Territory.
At that time too Russia’s socialist system collapsed and it became a Capitalist country. That effectively brought to an end the competition of two socio-economic systems. Therefore, it removed any need for military alliance.
The US obviously decided that Russia must never develop into a super power again. It decided to take advantage of the terrible economic dislocation in Russia. In 1999 the Clinton Administration engineered the acceptance of Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic into NATO. Needless to say that the promise to not even expand to the former East German territory went into the dump heap.
The then Russian President Yelsin was furious and protested. This event coincided with the advent of Vladimir Putin as Prime Minister of Russia.
He reacted differently to the expansion. He proposed that Russia should also join the alliance. After all, the ideological contest was removed. His proposal was rejected.
En passant one may ask was Putin serious? I think he was. That was demonstrated when he allowed the US troops to use Russian territory to attack terrorist bases in Afghanistan in 2001.
Instead of accepting the hand of friendship NATO continued to expand. Between 2002 and 2004 they absorbed Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia into the NATO. Russia again protested but was again ignored.
The expansion continued. In 2009 Albania and Croatia were taken into the NATO alliance, 2017 Montenegro was added and in 2020 North Macedonia was embraced.
In 2021 NATO officially recognized Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia and Ukraine for the next wave of enlargement.
So the facts are that NATO kept moving directly on Russian borders, frustrating every Russian call for mutual security. Russia was treated as an inconsequential country which the Russian state found hard to accept.
Today, we are hearing of Russia’s aggression. Yet it is Russia that NATO forces, including US and the UK armies are moving on. Up to Tuesday 22nd February 2022, Russia did not move an inch out of its borders. It threatened no NATO state. Indeed the leader of NATO, the US is insulated by two huge oceans.
Russia also had to endure the humiliation of the US putting bases in Poland and Romania with modern rocket launchers. When they protested, they were told it was against Iran and not Russia!
Naturally Russia lost all trust in the pronouncement of the US and NATO. Despite its economic challenges it has developed some of the most modern weapons in the world today. That is a demonstration of how insecure it feels to spend a large amount of money that it can hardly afford.
It has now decided to assert its demands for the West to take its legitimate security concerns into consideration.
This is a classic case where political and diplomatic efforts have failed and there is real danger of escalation of the war that has resulted.
They only way to end this is to take Russia seriously and deal with its security issues.
All the talk of Russia’s aggression will do no good!
The world’s peoples must now get involved and call for peace with guarantees from all sides! World leaders seem incapable of dealing with this.
Yours respectfully
Former President, Donald Ramotar
