Anne Applebaum
👤 SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
That's money that people aren't spending on health care or, I don't know, building nice parks and cities. are a lot of things that you sacrifice for doing that, but that's all happening because of this perception of threat. So NATO has been an institution that was interested in keeping the rules. I mean, NATO was very Europe-focused.
The idea of NATO was that it was part of a set of European institutions that would preserve borders in Europe, that would prevent the repeat of a large-scale war of the kind that everybody suffered from in the 1940s. It has never been an institution designed to project power into Russia or or anywhere else.
The idea of NATO was that it was part of a set of European institutions that would preserve borders in Europe, that would prevent the repeat of a large-scale war of the kind that everybody suffered from in the 1940s. It has never been an institution designed to project power into Russia or or anywhere else.
The idea of NATO was that it was part of a set of European institutions that would preserve borders in Europe, that would prevent the repeat of a large-scale war of the kind that everybody suffered from in the 1940s. It has never been an institution designed to project power into Russia or or anywhere else.
And you're saying it sounds like you're saying the NATO expanded after he invaded Ukraine.
And you're saying it sounds like you're saying the NATO expanded after he invaded Ukraine.
And you're saying it sounds like you're saying the NATO expanded after he invaded Ukraine.
Ukraine was not a member of NATO, and nor was it on the path to be a member of NATO. And I have to say, even had Ukraine been a member of NATO, maybe the invasion wouldn't have happened. So one of the reasons the invasion happened was because Ukraine was a country that was in limbo. It didn't have... any real military guarantees.
Ukraine was not a member of NATO, and nor was it on the path to be a member of NATO. And I have to say, even had Ukraine been a member of NATO, maybe the invasion wouldn't have happened. So one of the reasons the invasion happened was because Ukraine was a country that was in limbo. It didn't have... any real military guarantees.
Ukraine was not a member of NATO, and nor was it on the path to be a member of NATO. And I have to say, even had Ukraine been a member of NATO, maybe the invasion wouldn't have happened. So one of the reasons the invasion happened was because Ukraine was a country that was in limbo. It didn't have... any real military guarantees.
It did have actually, there had been security guarantees signed in the 1990s, this famous Budapest memorandum signed by the U.S. and the U.K. and Russia that guaranteed Ukraine's borders and Ukrainian sovereignty. But that obviously was abandoned by Russia in 2014 with the first invasion of Crimea. Ukraine was not provoking Russia. Ukraine was not seeking to invade Russia.
It did have actually, there had been security guarantees signed in the 1990s, this famous Budapest memorandum signed by the U.S. and the U.K. and Russia that guaranteed Ukraine's borders and Ukrainian sovereignty. But that obviously was abandoned by Russia in 2014 with the first invasion of Crimea. Ukraine was not provoking Russia. Ukraine was not seeking to invade Russia.
It did have actually, there had been security guarantees signed in the 1990s, this famous Budapest memorandum signed by the U.S. and the U.K. and Russia that guaranteed Ukraine's borders and Ukrainian sovereignty. But that obviously was abandoned by Russia in 2014 with the first invasion of Crimea. Ukraine was not provoking Russia. Ukraine was not seeking to invade Russia.
Nobody was invading Russia. Nobody was seeking to provoke Russia. I mean, NATO was a defensive alliance. Ukraine was without protection. And that may have been the mistake.
Nobody was invading Russia. Nobody was seeking to provoke Russia. I mean, NATO was a defensive alliance. Ukraine was without protection. And that may have been the mistake.
Nobody was invading Russia. Nobody was seeking to provoke Russia. I mean, NATO was a defensive alliance. Ukraine was without protection. And that may have been the mistake.
It's a common refrain among people who are repeating Russian propaganda.
It's a common refrain among people who are repeating Russian propaganda.
It's a common refrain among people who are repeating Russian propaganda.
let me go a little bit farther back in history, you know, in that case. As early as the 1990s, Russia, which had become independent after the collapse of the Soviet Union, already in 1993-94 had begun to make threatening language threatening gestures towards some of its neighbors.