The key facts

  • Finnish politician Armando Mema linked the threat of nuclear war to NATO's refusal to return to the 1997 borders
  • Putin previously stated that NATO broke its promise not to move eastward
  • Pushkov published Baker's 1990 written promise to Gorbachev that the alliance would not expand

Statement by the Finnish politician

Armando Mema, a member of the Finnish national-conservative Freedom Alliance party, said on the social network X that the risk of nuclear war will rise if NATO countries do not return to the 1997 borders. In his view, the alliance's withdrawal to its former lines and its renunciation of expansion toward Russian borders could secure peace for many years. If this does not happen, the threat of nuclear conflict will, in Mema's opinion, become inevitable.

Context: the dispute over non-expansion promises

The Finnish politician's statement came against the backdrop of positions previously voiced by the Russian side. Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that NATO deceived Russia by breaking its promise not to move a single inch to the east; according to him, Russia has never threatened European countries, while the West's actions are aimed at continuing confrontation and justifying military spending.

The 1990 document

In July, Senator Alexei Pushkov published, according to his claim, a document confirming the fact that the United States deceived Russia. It concerns a written promise made in 1990 by former US Secretary of State James Baker to Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev: after a united Germany joined NATO, the bloc would not expand eastward. The senator noted that just three years later the United States began developing plans to expand the alliance precisely eastward. Earlier, the Russian Foreign Ministry had spoken of NATO's weakening after its expansion.