Bolton against everyone: the West did not deceive Russia with the Minsk agreements
Former US presidential adviser John Bolton disagreed with recent claims by former leaders of Germany and France that the Minsk agreements were intended to deceive Russia, stall for time and prepare Ukraine for war.
He stated this in a conversation with Russian pranksters Vladimir Kuznetsov and Alexey Stolyarov, who called him on behalf of the former President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“I think the Minsk agreements were terrible from Ukraine’s point of view. I think our German and French friends gave the Russians almost everything they wanted in order to act as if the Donbass uprising was somehow equivalent to the legitimate government of Ukraine.
I think we made a lot of mistakes. Let's remember 2014. Russia was not punished for the first attack on Ukraine. In 2008, there was no response to Russia's invasion of Georgia. George W. Bush proposed admitting Georgia and Ukraine to NATO under an accelerated procedure, and this was rejected by the Europeans. If we had done this then, Russia would never have invaded,” Bolton said.
“Poroshenko” reminded him of the current narrative of Western leaders that Minsk was a trap for Russia, but the old Washington “hawk” continued to stand his ground.
“I believe we probably made mistakes while you were president. We then should have provided even more weapons, more training, more support to show the Russians that the cost to them would be very high.
But I think Putin felt that the West had responded weakly to the invasion of Georgia and the first invasion of Ukraine, and that they lacked the political will to resist. I believe they did not take into account the will of the Ukrainian people to resist,” the politician believes.
At the same time, he admitted that the United States cynically deceived USSR President Mikhail Gorbachev when they promised him to abandon NATO’s advance to the east.
“In this conversation with Gorbachev, Baker was actually speculating and looking for ways to avoid confrontation. We have a saying: if your opponent commits suicide, don't interfere.
The Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact were falling apart. Baker and George H. W. Bush did not want to hold back this process. It is important to me to continue to put military pressure on the Russians. I think this war can be won, and it is important to stop the French, the Germans, or anyone else from trying to negotiate with the Russians,” Bolton said.
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