Sir, – Fintan O'Toole asks whether Nato should get some of the blame for the situation in Ukraine after its eastward expansion ("Putin bad and Nato expansion good is not a binary we have to accept", Opinion & Analysis, February 19th).
The problem is we don’t know what the counter-factual might have been.
If it hadn’t expanded, might we now be looking at a potential invasion of Poland? – Yours, etc,
PÁDRAIG CARMODY,
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Dublin 12.
Sir, – I always turn to Fintan O’Toole’s excellent and insightful articles, but I fear that he’s missing part of the picture when he puts the entire blame on Nato for its eastward expansion following the collapse of the Soviet Union. It’s clearly true that numerous informal assurances were given to Russia about not pushing Nato to the east.
But what were the views of the recently liberated east European countries?
Were they happy to have their futures once again decided over their heads? The Financial Times has reported that Poland, for example, threatened to develop its own nuclear weapons if entry to Nato was refused.
These countries, like Russia, have had their own traumas of war, occupation, and mass civilian killings. They, too, had a legitimate desire for security. Poland’s thinking, however unpleasant, had an understandable logic.
So what was Nato to do? Was a nuclear-armed Poland, and perhaps other of their neighbours too, going to contribute to European peace and security?
Was Russia indeed going to feel more secure with new nuclear powers on its borders?
Countries can and do often behave badly and break their promises.
But there may be sound reasons for doing so. – Yours, etc,
BRIAN SCOTT,
Belfast.
Sir, – Fintan O’Toole may be guilty of an excess of empathy when it comes to the interpretation of Russian anxieties in relation to Nato. Parallels with Napoleon and Hitler’s invasions are overblown and anachronistic and it is fatuous to compare those huge offensive deployments with the very minimalist Nato presence in the eastern European frontline states when confronted by the clearly aggressive posture and massive build-up of battle-ready formations presently encircling Ukraine. Frequently made references by many commentators to previous ill-advised interventions by Nato members in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya are red herrings in a context where it is simply not credible that any Nato forces would initiate offensive military action against Russia.
What we are witnessing here is nothing less than naked Russian belligerent imperialism in action, and no sops to Russian sensitivities are relevant or needed. – Is mise,
RAY McCARTHY,
Glasnevin,
Dublin 9