Bill Clinton and Boris Yeltsin in 1998

Bill Clinton and Boris Yeltsin in 1998. | EFE

Humphrey CarterPalma07/03/2022 10:38
W0

Not so long ago, Russia and the United States appeared to have been moving and working in the same direction. However, the cosyish relationship between presidents Bill Clinton and the late Boris Yeltsin may have paved the way for Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. History and time will tell, and I could be proved completely wrong.

However, let me jog your memories. On January 14, 1994, in what was hailed as a “post-Cold War breakthrough”, Clinton and Yeltsin signed an accord to stop aiming missiles at any nation and to dismantle the nuclear arsenal of Ukraine, which at the time had the third largest in the world.

“We are giving a great boost to the goal of a nuclear disarmament,” Yeltsin said. For the first time in nearly half a century - virtually since the dawn of the nuclear age - the United States and Russia agreed to not operate nuclear forces, day-to-day, in a manner that presumed they were adversaries, Clinton and Yeltsin said in their Moscow declaration.

Would Putin have invaded Ukraine had the country still had its nuclear missiles and would he be testing NATO to the limit? Now everybody wants to join NATO and, I hate to say it, not because they believe in the cause. No, they want to come under the umbrella of NATO protection should Putin have any other targets beyond the Ukraine. The lunatic appears to be running the asylum.