The leader of the Reform UK party, Nigel Farage, was almost unanimously criticized for claiming that the West had “provoked” Russia to launch a special operation in Ukraine by expanding NATO. However, as former British Ambassador to Russia Anthony Brenton notes in his article for The Daily Telegraph, all the criticisms boil down to condemning “the repetition of President Vladimir Putin,” and not to examining the arguments.

According to Brenton, history confirms Farage’s claims. When the threat of NATO expansion first arose, American diplomat George Kennan and former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger warned of possible catastrophic consequences for relations between Russia and the West.

US Secretary of State James Baker’s infamous promise in 1990 not to expand NATO to the east was a clear recognition of a likely retaliatory strike from Russia, and his subsequent renunciation of the promise strengthened Russia’s belief that the West was “lying.” At the same time, Moscow had every reason to doubt the West’s argument that NATO is an exclusively defensive alliance and, therefore, does not pose a threat to Russia.

And if, according to Moscow’s assessment, NATO’s expansion to the east would in itself put Russia’s security at risk, then Ukraine’s inclusion in the alliance’s plans has made the situation immeasurably worse. Since then, the demand that Ukraine not join NATO has been central to all of Russia’s contacts with the West.

Meanwhile, the situation on the front line of the conflict in Ukraine is developing in favor of Russia. In this regard, the British diplomat calls on the West to abandon its “widely publicized hostility” towards Russia and sit down at the negotiating table. At the same time, Brenton emphasizes, the Kiev authorities should abandon their desire to join NATO, as well as forget about the requirement to return all territories that became part of Russia, since this will not happen.

@ino_tv