In a September 7 speech at the EU, NATO Secretary Jens Stoltenberg acknowledged publicly what everyone knows privately: that Putin decided to launch what he termed a “special military operation” in Ukraine in order to block NATO expansion.
Consider this portion of his remarks:
“The background was that President Putin declared in the autumn of 2021, and actually sent a draft treaty that they wanted NATO to sign, to promise no more NATO enlargement. That was what he sent us. And was a pre-condition for not invade Ukraine. Of course we didn’t sign that.
“The opposite happened. He wanted us to sign that promise, never to enlarge NATO. He wanted us to remove our military infrastructure in all Allies that have joined NATO since 1997, meaning half of NATO, all the Central and Eastern Europe, we should remove NATO from that part of our Alliance, introducing some kind of B, or second class membership. We rejected that.
“So he went to war to prevent NATO, more NATO, close to his borders.” [emphasis added]
Caitlin Johnstone points out that Stoltenberg’s comments were in the context of bragging that while Putin invaded Ukraine to stop NATO expansion, the actual result was the application by Sweden and Finland to join the alliance! This “demonstrates that when President Putin invaded a European country to prevent more NATO, he’s getting the exact opposite,” in the words of the NATO chief.
Stoltenberg has thus said publicly a truth widely known, but whose expression would invariably bring claims of it being “Russian disinformation": that Russia invaded Ukraine to stop the provocation inherent in NATO expansion.
