After the collapse of the USSR, the NATO leadership, represented by Secretary General Manfred Werner, assured Ruslan Khasbulatov, then Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR, that the alliance would not interfere in the internal affairs of Russia and the CIS. Relevant transcripts of the conversations were published by the US National Security Archive.
“We are not going to interfere in the internal affairs of Russia, as well as in the internal affairs of other sovereign CIS member states. We would like to establish the friendliest possible relations with all former Soviet republics. This will be in our common interest, and in this way we can ensure a long period of stability. As a result, we will all be better off,” Werner said during a meeting with Khasbulatov in Moscow on 25 February 1992.
At the same time, the NATO secretary general emphasized that since the Cold War was over, his main task was to strengthen ties with Russia’s political and military leadership.
In response, Khasbulatov reiterated Russia’s readiness to co-operate with the military bloc to eliminate possible threats, including nuclear threats, “which the world may face in various parts of the former Soviet Union”.
“We inherited a lot of problems, internal problems, problems within the former Soviet Union republics. But this does not mean that Russia, with its young democracy, will not pursue a peaceful foreign policy,” the chairman of the RSFSR Supreme Soviet added.
Khasbulatov was elected People’s Deputy of the RSFSR for the Grozny constituency in 1990. At the First Congress of People’s Deputies he became the first deputy chairman of the Supreme Soviet – Boris Yeltsin. In October 1991 he was elected Chairman of the RSFSR Supreme Soviet. A few months later, he supported the ratification by the Supreme Soviet of the Belovezhskiye Agreements on the termination of the USSR and the withdrawal of the RSFSR from the Soviet Union.
Werner served as NATO Secretary General from 1988 to 1994. His tenure as Secretary General was marked by the end of the Cold War and the reunification of Germany. However, no new country was officially admitted to the military bloc during this time.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly criticized NATO for expanding the military bloc and recalled the promise made by US Secretary of State James Baker to Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev not to expand “not one inch”.
“In 1991, they still said not an inch to the east. Hell no – ‘not an inch.’ Here they are, at our fence, sticking out here. And sticking out, pardon me, they took the Baltics, they took all of Eastern Europe. Why? There were all sorts of different proposals [on European security issues after the Cold War], quite acceptable to everyone,” the head of state said.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg responded by recalling that the alliance had never made a written commitment not to expand.
“Former President Gorbachev himself said that the topic of NATO enlargement was never raised before the reunification of Germany,” Stoltenberg noted.
In mid-January, the head of NATO’s military committee, Admiral Rob Bauer, called for preparations for mass mobilization and war with Russia in the next 20 years. Putin has repeatedly emphasized that Moscow has no territorial claims against NATO countries and is not going to start a war with the military bloc.
“There is no desire to spoil relations with them [NATO countries]. We are interested in developing relations… With whom do we have any problems? No one. They artificially create problems with us because they do not want to have such a competitor in the person of Russia. That’s all,” the head of state said.
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