Vous consultezLes promesses faites à Gorbatchev : l’avenir des alliances au crépuscule de la guerre froide

Promises made to Gorbachev: the future of alliances at the twilight of the Cold War
The claim that the West had promised not to undertake an Eastern enlargement of nato is a founding myth of today’s Russian Federation. It is vigorously rejected in the West, though it has its adherents there as well. The debate has intensified recently with a strongly argued article in the Washington Quarterly that sought to refute the Russian claim, supposedly on the basis of newly available documents. In fact, the relevant key documents, notably the minutes of meetings and the memoirs of participants, had been previously available. These documents confirm the ambiguity of commitments made at the time, even as an analysis of the historical context brings out the spirit of the assurances given to the Soviets at a time when nato’s weakness gave no hint of the expansion that awaited it.