In an article entitled “NATO Is At The Roots Of The Ukraine Crisis And Of Its Solution” posted on his Facebook page and picked up by some web media, former UN drug fighter Pino Arlacchi called for a solution on the Ukrainian crisis which includes sovereignty for Ukraine and security for Russia.
“It is Europe that holds the keys to ending Russia’s military attack on Ukraine, only if it decides to act instead of bickering between Washington and the Kremlin as it has done so far. ... [T]he time for games is over, and … precise security guarantees must be put on the table. With the attack on Ukraine, Russia has suddenly closed the diplomatic and political playing field in which Macron and Scholz have been moving with a lot of ease.”
Macron and Scholz had apparently convinced Zelenskyy to take the first step, but when Moscow asked to put this on paper, “Both the Europeans and Biden said no, thinking they could prolong the mockery of a nuclear power of the caliber of Russia that began 30 years ago, with Boris Yeltsin, and continued until three days ago.
“There are those who argue that the real issue for Putin is not the expansion of NATO but the pure and simple reconstitution of the Russian empire. Too bad there is no evidence to support this rambling.
“With the fall of the U.S.S.R. and the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact (NATO on the other side), the Western powers offered ample assurances to Russian leaders that NATO would not expand eastward after German unification.
“But nothing was put in writing. No treaty was made, because the two sides did not consider it necessary, given the cooperative and friendly relations established between the two former enemies. And for a couple of years after 1989 NATO itself seemed to have its days numbered.
