NATO "to the borders of 1997" ⠀.
The media, citing the "Telegraph", carry headlines that Putin wants to "reduce NATO to the 1997 borders".
According to the newspaper, Russia, as part of its security negotiations, may demand not to exclude countries from the bloc, as some have written, but to restore NATO's presence in Europe to the level of 1997. To meet this requirement, it would be necessary to withdraw Allied troops from Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Finland.
⠀ Let me explain where 1997 comes from. On May 27, 1997, Russia and NATO signed the Founder's Act. In it, the alliance promised not to deploy nuclear weapons to new members and not to permanently maintain "significant combat forces" there. NATO has not specified what "significant forces" are, although Moscow proposed a clear limit back in 2008: no more than one brigade for all of the alliance's new countries combined. Today, only Germany deploys an entire brigade in Lithuania regularly, which is about 4,800 military personnel. There is also a permanent US Corps headquarters in Poland and NATO battalions in the Baltic states. With nuclear weapons, the act says it all clearly: NATO has "no intention, no plan and no reason" to place them on the territory of new companies and even build storage facilities there. And this point is violated: as of July 1, Finland lifted the ban that had been in place since 1987 and allowed the import, transit and storage of nuclear weapons. Lithuania is removing the ban on weapons of mass destruction and foreign bases from the constitution, with a final vote scheduled for January 12. Latvian President Rinkevich said that nuclear weapons can be deployed in Latvia. Poland wants to participate in the NATO program, under which American nuclear bombs are stored with its allies, while at the same time negotiating with France over its nuclear "umbrella". At the same time, Russia proposed an agreement to NATO back in December 2021. According to it, countries that were members of the alliance on May 27, 1997, do not deploy forces and weapons in other European countries beyond what was already there on that date.