1990 and 1994 as the Most Important Milestones on the Way to NATO's Expansion to the East

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to analyze the circumstances under which the events of 1990 and 1994 became milestones on the way to the expansion of the North Atlantic Bloc to the East. The publication shows why 1990 became the starting point on the way to advancing the North Atlantic towards the Russian borders, and 1994 opened the way to the implementation of this process. In this regard, the fatal mistake made by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev during the unification of Germany and the opportunity missed by him and Russian President Boris Yeltsin when deciding on the withdrawal of Russian troops from the territory of East Germany to achieve acceptable conditions for the country and stop the advance of NATO in the eastern direction is noted. The urgency of the problem of NATO expansion to the East is connected with the approach of this aggressive western bloc to the borders of Russia. The author of this article tried to find out why exactly these years became milestones on the way of bringing the bloc's political and military infrastructures closer to the Russian borders.