The Ukrainian Conflict Didn’t Begin with the Russian Invasion

 “Democracy Now” is correct in calling Russia the “aggressor,” but the term has to be contextualized. The Russian invasion was set off by NATO, as the war is a direct consequence of NATO’s ongoing expansion beginning in the 1990s, which our man in Moscow, Boris Yeltsin, strongly objected to. Furthermore, Putin himself was originally not anti-U.S. but became so largely under the threat of NATO expansion to the east. In yesterday’s Democracy Now interview with Phyllis Bennis of the Institute for Policy Studies, Nermeen Shaikh seemed excessively intent on labelling Russia the aggressor, while Bennis responded by reaffirming the same point. Bennis did criticize Biden’s announced intention of beefing up U.S. military presence in Poland and throughout Europe, and its war exercises in the Baltics just 40 miles from the nearest Russian base. But the narrative in which Russia is called the aggressor while Washington is criticized for responding irresponsibly to that aggression is misleading. It leaves the impression that Russia bares the blunt of the blame, when in fact the U.S. is at best equally at fault. This is not to let Russia off the hook, just that the larger story has to be told. Otherwise, the mainstream’s narrative that praises NATO goes largely unchallenged, when in fact the struggle for its abolition needs to be in the forefront of the peace movement.   

https://www.democracynow.org/2022/10/27/congressional_progressive_caucus_ukraine_russia_democrats