NATO/West Russia Timeline

• 1992

  • 04/06: The Bosnian War, an international armed conflict that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina starts.

• 1994

  • 12/01: Finland and Sweden join NATO’s Partnership for Peace program.

• 1995

  • 08/30: Month-long NATO bombing campaign against Serbian targets begins.

• 1996:

  • 02/15: Russian popular discontent becomes so intense that it is clear the incumbent president, Boris Yeltsin, had no chance of winning reelection. The Russian oligarchate are now concerned that victory by the communists might create difficulties for their continued looting of the country. A group of the most powerful oligarchs, led by Berezovsky and Gusinsky, make a deal with Yeltsin: in return for his guaranteeing the privatization of state enterprises, they finance his campaign and throw their media resources behind him—by that point, they controlled all mass media. They also hire a team of American political campaign consultants (including the infamous Dick Morris) to manage Yeltsin’s reelection. Even that would not be enough, and in the end they resort to massive electoral fraud to reelect Yeltsin. This is how Russia becomes an extreme plutocracy in 1996. The year is likely the lowest point in recent Russian history, people are dying in droves from deaths of despair.

• 1997

  • 02/05: Famous strategist George F. Kennan writes “[B]luntly stated…expanding NATO would be the most fateful error of American policy in the entire post-Cold War era. Such a decision may be expected to inflame the nationalistic, anti-Western and militaristic tendencies in Russian opinion; to have an adverse effect on the development of Russian democracy; to restore the atmosphere of the cold war to East-West relations, and to impel Russian foreign policy in directions decidedly not to our liking”. Kennan is the architect of America’s post-World War II strategy of containment of the Soviet Union.

• 1999

  • 03/12: Three former Warsaw Pact nations — the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland — join NATO.

  • 03/24: NATO carries out a three month long aerial bombing campaign against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia during the Kosovo War.

  • 08/09: Putin is appointed acting prime minister of the Government of the Russian Federation by Yeltsin.

  • 09/04: A series of terror bombings hit four apartment blocks in the Russian cities of Buynaksk, Moscow, and Volgodonsk, killing more than 300, injuring more than 1,000. Chechen militants were blamed for the bombings, but denied responsibility

  • 12/25: The month-long Battle of Grozny starts. The siege and assault on the city resulted in the near total destruction of the urban area.

  • 12/31: Following the resignation of President Boris Yeltsin, Putin is appointed Acting President.

• 2000

  • 03/26: Putin is elected as President of Russia.

  • 06/03: Putin asks Clinton during his Moscow visit 'do you think if Russia asked to join NATO, would it happen?’ Suddenly Clinton says, ‘You know, it’s interesting. I think so,’. But in the evening, when they met for dinner, he said: 'You know, I’ve talked to my team, no, it’s not possible now'.

• 2004

  • 03/29: The biggest NATO expansion to date as seven countries become members: Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

• 2006

  • 05/21: Montenegro declares its independence from Serbia after a referandum.

• 2008

  • 04/02: NATO countries welcome Ukraine and Georgia’s aspirations to join the alliance at the Bucharest Summit, angering Russia.

  • 08/26: Russia wins a short war with Georgia over the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, which Moscow recognizes as independent states.

• 2009

  • 04/01: Croatia and Albania become NATO members.

• 2011

  • 01/25: Egyptian revolution begins, clashes break out in Tahrir Square.

  • 02/11: Egyptian President Mubarak is ousted after 18 days of demonstrations.

  • 03/15: Syrian civil war started.

  • 03/19: A NATO-led coalition began a military intervention into the ongoing Libyan Civil War. NATO would flow 26,500 sorties over eight months.

  • 04/18: NATO enforces a no-fly zone over Libya.

  • 10/20: The deposed leader of Libya Muammar Gaddafi is killed after the Battle of Sirte.

• 2014

  • 01/26: In an intercepted conversation, Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Viktoria Nuland while talking to Geoffrey R. Pyatt, the US ambassador in Kyiv about possible nominations of opposition leaders to form a new government is heard saying 'F**k the EU'. The US ambassador answers 'exactly'.

  • 02/23: Ukranian president Yanukovych is removed from the office following days of Maidan protests.

  • 03/18: Russia annexes Crimea

  • 04/12: Russian-backed militants seized towns and cities in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region and proclaimed the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) and the Luhansk People's Republic (LPR) as independent states.

• 2015

  • 02/12: Russia attacked Ukrainian forces at Debaltseve, where Ukraine suffered a major defeat, and was forced to sign a Package of Measures for the Implementation of the Minsk Agreements, or Minsk II. Ukraine did not implement the measures which contributed to further escalation. Boris Johnson would later admit that the measures were nothing more than a ‘diplomatic charade’. German ex-Chancellor Angela Merkel admitted to similar, she revealed the Minsk agreements were actually aimed to give Ukraine time to get stronger and for NATO to increase its support to the country.

• 2017

  • 06/05: Montenegro joins NATO.

• 2019:

  • 04/22: Ukrainian comedian Volodymyr Zelensky scores a landslide victory in the country's presidential election. Zelensky is bankrolled by Ihor Kolomoisky, a rival oligarch to the country's president-oligarch Poroshenko.

• 2020

  • 03/27: North Macedonia becomes NATO’s 30th member.

• 2021

  • 06/16: On a trip to Europe facing a question 'should Ukraine be invited to join the NATO, and thereby receive a promise of mutual security from the United States as well as NATO’s other 29 members?' Biden responds with 'it remains to be seen'.

  • 11/23: For the second time this year, Russia amasses an estimated 100,000 troops around Ukraine.

• 2022

  • 02/24: Russia invades Ukraine in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War.

  • 04/01: Russia and Ukraine agree on a tentative deal in Istanbul... Russia would withdraw to its position on February 23, when it controlled part of the Donbas region and all of Crimea, and in exchange, Ukraine would promise not to seek NATO membership and instead receive security guarantees from a number of countries. Boris Johnson torpedoed the deal, reportedly urging Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to break off talks with Russia, saying "the West isn’t ready for the war to end".