DISINFO: NATO had to withdraw from Eastern Europe according to Founding Act
SUMMARY
NATO was supposed to withdraw from Eastern Europe in accordance with the Founding Act. Russia had been reminding it about this obligation. If Russia has made a mistake, it has been its soft reminders. Putin’s speech in Munich in 2007 made it all clear. Russia demanded that NATO would comply with its obligation, but NATO, like the entire West usually does, failed to do so.
RESPONSE
This is a recurring disinformation narrative from pro-Kremlin outlets claiming that NATO had promised Russia it would not expand to the East and that NATO enlargement was posing a threat to Russia. This claim was made in the context of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The Founding Act on Mutual Relations, Cooperation and Security between NATO and the Russian Federation, signed in 1997, does not contain any obligation from NATO not to expand. On the contrary, Article IV of the act (Political-Military Matters) mentions “the territory of new members”, which is a clear indication of a possible engagement. Article II (Mechanism for Consultation and Cooperation, the NATO-Russia Permanent Joint Council) says:
“Provisions of this Act do not provide NATO or Russia, in any way, with a right of veto over the actions of the other nor do they infringe upon or restrict the rights of NATO or Russia to independent decision-making and action. They cannot be used as a means to disadvantage the interests of other states.”
Claims that some leader or some leaders from a NATO member state pledged that the Alliance would not enlarge are unsubstantiated because there is no trustworthy evidence of it. Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev himself denied these claims in an interview in 2014:
“The topic of ‘NATO enlargement was not discussed at all, and it wasn’t brought up in those years. I say this with full responsibility. Not a single Eastern European country raised the issue, not even after the Warsaw Pact ceased to exist in 1991.”
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