As U.S. talks begin, Russia’s FM falsely calls Ukraine an “orphan state.”
On January 10, as Russian and U.S. diplomats discussed European security in Geneva, the Russian embassy in the United Kingdom tweeted a quote from Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
“NATO has become a purely #geopolitical project aimed at taking over areas orphaned by the collapse of the Warsaw Pact and the Soviet Union,” Lavrov said in a tweet.
But the claim that Ukraine and other sovereign countries are just “orphans” of the Soviet Union is false, as is Lavrov’s claim that NATO “takes power” over its members.
NATO is not gaining new members by conquering. The 30-member international alliance has a so-called “open door” policy for those countries that want to join. Like NATO Bulletin said in 1999:
“The door to NATO membership is open to other European countries that are ready and willing to take on the commitments and obligations of membership and whose membership contributes to the security of the Euro-Atlantic area.”
NATO members are also free to resign. France withdrew from NATO’s integrated military command following the 1966 nuclear policy disputes with the United States and Britain.
Although France did not completely withdraw from NATO, it ordered NATO bases and personnel out of its territory, prompting the Alliance to relocate its headquarters to Belgium. France only returned fully to NATO under Nicholas Sarkozy in 2009.
NATO is a defense alliance. Decisions are taken unanimously and all member states have the right to vote. Five NATO members are limited to Russia – Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia in the Baltic region, Norway and Poland bordering the Kaliningrad exclave in Russia.
Russia demands binding assurances from NATO that Ukraine and Georgia will not become members, and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov has called on NATO return to the “1997 limits”.
These requirements violate the Final Act of the Helsinki Accords, which set out the principles of human rights and security in Europe. It was signed in 1975 The United States, the Soviet Union, several European countries – members of both NATO and the Warsaw Pact – and non-aligned countries.
As for joining the alliance, the law says:
“They (European countries) also have the right to belong or not to belong to international organizations, to be or not to be parties to bilateral or multilateral agreements, including the right to be or not to participate in alliance agreements; they also have the right to impartiality.”
If they declared Ukraine or Georgia incapable of joining NATO, NATO members would violate the Helsinki Agreement. Although Russia claims that NATO intended to allow Ukraine and Georgia to join in 2008, the alliance refused that year to offer the necessary membership action plan to either country.
At the time, support for NATO membership was very low in Ukraine and only rose after Russian-backed attacks on the country in 2014. NATO countries, notably France and Germany, also opposed Ukraine’s and Georgia’s NATO membership. The United States is also said to have given up its support for the accession of the two countries.
The Helsinki Final Act also prohibits the use or intimidation of force against another nation, which Russia violated by occupying the Crimean peninsula of Ukraine and inciting and maintaining a separatist war in the Donbas region of Ukraine.
Although NATO has not forced states to join the alliance, Russia has used coercive measures to keep states out of NATO membership.
One example is 2016 coup attempt in Montenegro, which was intended to oust the then President Milo Djukanovic, who supported NATO membership. Fourteen defendants, including two Russian citizens, were convicted of participating in the plot, but their appeal was overturned by the Court of Appeal.
Montenegro joined NATO in 2017 following a unanimous vote in its parliament.