Lavrov says West seeks to use Gorbachev's name for its geopolitical purposes

Ms. Cat

Sep 3

Lavrov also pointed out that those who spoke about relations with Gorbachev include former US Secretary of State James Baker.

"Baker said of Gorbachev: 'I thought he was an honest negotiator and I could count on his word.' That's an amazing revelation. Because we were counting on Baker's word as well. By we I mean the leadership of the Soviet Union. About the non-expansion of NATO to the east, among other things. They cheated us brazenly," Lavrov said.

In a statement published through his eponymous Institute for Public Policy at Rice University, Baker applauded Gorbachev's role in ending the 40-year Cold War between Russia and the U.S., referring to him as an "honest broker" who stood by his word despite experiencing pressure from Moscow.

NATO Expansion: What Gorbachev Heard

Washington D.C., December 12, 2017 – U.S. Secretary of State James Baker's famous "not one inch eastward" assurance about NATO expansion in his meeting with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev on February 9, 1990, was part of a cascade of assurances about Soviet security given by Western leaders to Gorbachev and other Soviet officials throughout the process of German unification in 1990 and on into 1991, according to declassified U.S., Soviet, German, British and French documents posted today by the National Security Archive at George Washington University

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