Putin Says 'Respect Me,' Media Forgets NATO Expansion
Putin's remarks about not launching new attacks (following Ukraine, 2022; Crimea, 2014; Georgia, 2008) are presented with the gravitas of a new policy declaration. Yet, for anyone paying attention beyond yesterday's headlines, this 'respect' is code for what Moscow sees as broken assurances regarding NATO expansion. Former US Ambassador to Russia Jack Matlock Jr. and historian Mary Elise Sarotte
have extensively documented how former Secretary of State James Baker III, among others, offered verbal assurances in 1990 that NATO would not expand 'one inch eastward' – a promise that, in Moscow's view, evaporated with each successive enlargement. To report Putin's statement without this foundational context is less journalism, more stenography. It's almost as if the idea of a nation feeling
disrespected when an opposing military alliance creeps to its borders is... unheard of. One might ask if the US would feel 'respected' if, say, a Russian-backed military bloc built bases in Mexico or Canada. But such rhetorical questions are, of course, strictly off-limits when the 'enemy' is speaking.