Dr. Vladimir Brovkin Interview On Western Relations With Russia Post-1991

Dr. Vladimir Brovkin on the founding of NATO (from part 2 of the interview posted below): 

“First of all, it’s wrong to say that all countries joined voluntarily. That’s not the case, especially in regard to Germany. When NATO was founded, I believe it was Churchill who put it like this: the purpose of NATO is to keep Russia out, Germany down, and the U.S. in. Now, that’s a very, very concise and precise definition of what was NATO for. In other words, the British policy, which Americans have inherited, has always been that there should not be any country dominating the continent. 

And so Churchill was so upset not really about communism, but about the fact that Russia wound up dominating half the continent. And NATO was very convenient to expand Anglo-American influence. It was not so much about defense. It was just to keep Russia out. 

Now, if we go one by one, the countries that supposedly voluntarily joined NATO, Portugal never had military issues with Russia, Spain; no military issues with Russia, Italy, Greece, all of these countries. . .Most of these countries joined NATO not because they needed it for their security but because it implied Marshall Aid, it implied economic assistance, it implied political influence. And they didn’t care, why not? If Americans want to give us money, and for that we need to be in a joint military alliance, and there’s no enemy to fear, so they joined it. . .

But, I admit to you, there are countries that really fear Russia out of historical reasons. These are the Baltic countries, Poland, Romania, and they have good reason to fear Russia. However, that’s 50 years ago, 70 years ago, 100 years ago. This does not mean that you have to project this fear into the contemporary situation, because in the contemporary situation, especially after 1991, Russia was not a military threat to any of these countries.”

Video Title: DrBrovkin Interview part1 Mistakes of the West After 1991. Source: Vladimir Brovkin. Date Published: October 18, 2022. Description:

This is a series of questions and answers on a variety of contemporary issues, such as the War in Ukraine, the Role of NATO, the model Security arrangements, and others. Each short video is the answer to one question. In this one, we deal with different perceptions of the West and the Russians after the collapse of the Soviet Union.