(To Andrea pinto) Putin's propaganda in support of the special military operation in Ukraine is centered on historical reasons, dating back to the empire of Peter the Great and on the narrative of the dangerous expansion of NATO to Russia's borders.
The enlargement of NATO towards Russia is a thesis studied by many international observers and analysts who, trying to justify the invasion of Moscow against Kiev, in some cases have evaluated the reasons supported by Putin as acceptable and in a certain sense even shareable.
Recent history, however, tells another version, the one that the general Pasquale Preziosa,
former Chief of Staff of theaeronautics and today president ofEurispes Safety Observatory he explained during ainterview on TGCOM24. We therefore heard from the general to deepen the concepts highlighted during the television intervention.
As far as the 'Ukraine's entry into NATO, General Preziosa argued as follows: "Ukraine's entry into NATO today does not help from a general point of view to favor a possible peace process, from a political point of view instead, it is the narrative of one of the two parties that forward and send signals. In fact, the entry of Georgia and Ukraine into NATO was already decided in NATO summit in Bucharest in April 2008, without a precise date for joining. On the occasion it was decided the entry of the Croatia and Albania, with the suspension of the Northern Macedonia then admitted in 2020.
The accession requests of Ukraine and Georgia were supported by President Bush but not readily accepted by Germany and France due to the instabilities present in those countries. The agreement with the USA was reached, indicating in the final statement of the Summit, only the two countries as candidates for access to NATO without setting a specific date for entry into the Alliance, subjecting it to the fulfillment of the admission requirements set by the MAP plan (Membership Action Plan). Putin responded to that decision of the NATO summit first with the invasion of Georgia
in August 2008 and then with the destabilization of Ukraine in 2014 after the events ofeuromaidan.
It is important to clarify, adds the general, the history of the enlargement of the Alliance, detailing it as much as possible, otherwise it seems that the Alliance really took the enlargement decisions autonomously and not in coordination with Russia and in accordance with the treaties signed after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
The end of the Soviet Union led in 1990 to the signing of the Charter of Paris in the context of Conference on security and cooperation in Europe (CSCE) by the 32 countries belonging to the CSCE, among which there were both the USA and the Soviet Union at the time (today's Russia ed).
With the signing of the Charter of Paris all signatories they shared the principle that countries made independent and sovereign after the fall of the wall could make their own free choices for their future.
In accordance with that Charter, in 1997 the Russian president Yeltsin he demanded that NATO enlargements should be coordinated with Russia: thus the so-called was born NATO Russia Founding Act for the comparison and approval of all the geopolitical modifications of the European territory, free to choose his own foreign policy autonomously.
NATO has never changed its membership policy to the Alliance established in Article 10 of the North Atlantic treaty signed after the Second World War which reads: “the members may invite, with their unanimous consent, any other European state in a position to comply with the principles of this treaty and to contribute to security…”
This policy has been referred to over time as "open door policy" and it was in the spirit and respect of the Charter of Paris.
Russia in the 90s under Yeltsin suffered a major political, economic and financial crisis and was looking for a new identity. Since the 2000s, Putin has given the country a new identity and developed a very attractive policy to reaffirm Russian influence in the countries of Russia's periphery.
The policy developed by Putin was very different from that of Yeltsin, stigmatizes Preziosa
The new policy defined by some analysts neo-imperialist it was prepared earlier and has manifested itself in all its aspects since 2008 with the invasion of Georgia in violation of the Charter of Paris and the Charter of the United Nations.
Peace between France and China
On the current diplomatic efforts of France and China to restore peace in Ukraine, Preziosa emphasized that “hope will be the last to die, let's take into account that we live in a society of uncertainty and wars are by definition uncertain.
We must observe that, so far, there is no clear winner on the Ukrainian battlefield which appears to be stagnant. Attrition wars are the bloodiest and longest. We have to wait for the end of the Ukrainian counter-offensive and therefore for the end of the year to have clearer ideas on the trajectory this conflict will take.
Unfortunately, being an indirect war between the USA and Russia, the strategic framework is more complex because it must take into account the strategic objectives of the two powers now at odds which extend from the Indo-Pacific to the Arctic.
The role of Europe
He is pragmatic about the role of Precious Europe: "certainly Europe, which seems to have lived in the"Belle Époque ” after the fall of the Berlin Wall, today it must be more a promoter of the negotiation and peace process because the borders of the conflict are in Europe and if the conflict were to take a bad turn, the European territory in its entirety will be in danger.
With the entrance of the Finland in NATO, the borders with Russia have increased, they are about 1300 km more and the deployment of new nuclear weapons on the borders by Russia has increased the levels of risk for the Alliance.
It is necessary to lower the level of Russian perception of the NATO threat and to push Russia to be the guarantor of the United Nations Charter together with China which fears for Taiwan, underlined General Preziosa.
Fu Putinadds the general, who faced the German Parliament in 2001 he declared that freedom had taken the place of the misfortunes of the Soviet Stalinist period (the ”ideas of freedom” replaced “stalinist totalitarian ideology” and then in German: “Russia is a friendly European country.”)
It was there China to present a peace plan, certainly improvable where in the first point it says: "Respect for the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of all countries according to recognized international laws including the purposes and principles of the United Nations"
With this Putin and with this China, Europe has the possibility of building a secure future for its populations, the alternative will be very heavy both for Russia and for Europe”.
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