re: Latest Updates: Russia-Ukraine Conflict

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In mid-December, the National Security Archives at George Washington University released three dozen declassified documents relating to the German reunification negotiations in 1990.

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And yet it was never actually documented and that's the key thing here. Even your source just says "People overheard". Hell even Gorbachev admits the conversation never happened. But that's the thing, people keep saying "It was talked about", but no one can actually prove that it was. And if this was so important to Russia, surely the delegation wouldn't have been so stupid as to not write it down somewhere?

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Ten years later, in an interview with the German newspaper Bild, Gorbachev complained that the West had tricked Moscow. "Many people in the West were secretly rubbing their hands and felt something like a flush of victory -- including those who had promised us: 'We will not move 1 centimeter further east,'" he was quoted as saying.

Gorbachev later appeared to reverse himself, saying the subject of enlargement in fact never came up in 1989 or 1990. "The topic of 'NATO expansion' was never discussed; it was not raised in those years. I am saying this with a full sense of responsibility. Not a single Eastern European country brought up the issue, not even after the Warsaw Pact had ceased to exist in 1991," he told the newspaper Kommersant in October 2014.

Gorbachev could not be reached for comment. A spokesman did not immediately return an e-mail.

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So in a referendum, 97% of the population voted for accession.

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While this might be the outcome, I whole hardly disagree that this wasn't influenced or honest results. Now doesn't mean a majority would have voted for that, but to act like when this vote was taken that it was without influence is just being naïve at best.

What I will concede to you (and a fact that hasn't really been brought up on this whole thread even by pro-Russia people oddly) is the post USSR vote. Per my understanding, Crimea and Donbass were supposed to have some degree of autonomy from Ukraine and were never given such. Still doesn't give Russia that blessing to invade Ukraine.

I honestly believe if Russia would have just stuck to the Donbas, no one would be supporting the war effort. It's because Russia tried to take over the whole country we find ourselves where we are.