The hypocrisy...the Pot that thinks he can clean, the kettle...the USA and it's allies.
The West may be hypocrites, doesn't mean they are wrong though. And also by Russia invading Ukraine proves that they are also hypocrites when they condemned the US for its invasion of Iraq and then go to invade another country themselves.
The greatest deception of all..one simple question, how would the USA like and react if the Fed of Russia build missile bases in Mexico, Canada or Cental and northern part of South America? Yeah, how would they?
I suspect the USA would not like it all and may even take military steps to stop it depending on the scale of what was happening there. However here is the difference, Mexico, Canada and Central and South America don't consider the USA a potential existential threat and don't feel the need to join a military defensive alliance as protection against the US. Now consider the position of central and eastern European countries who suffered terribly under Russian/Soviet control. They only gained their independence in the early to mid 1990's and since that time Russia has developed into an authoritarian state that has acted aggressively against its neighbours. When it comes to military strength individually these countries are no match for Russia. Is it any surprise they seek the safety of a powerful military alliance. Absolutely Russia has a right to security but those countries who border Russia do so equally as well.
What gives them and their lackeys sole rights to demand that without conflict.
I'm not saying this is right but the simple answer is power and having so much of it, that they can do what they want because no one can hold them to account for their actions. Russia is trying to do the same thing only to discover it doesn't have the same level of power.
...and what about non-existent "the weapons of mass destruction" in Iraq.. The only one's used, I can think of were "Little Boy and Fatman" in Japan.
Whataboutism isn't a good argument. Two wrongs don't make a right.
Taking the spec out of the other man's eye when their is a log in their own. Rather remove their own log in their eye, so they see clearly and only then, would they been able to remove the spec in the other's eye.
All I can say here is what I'm confident in my abilities for critical thinking. I'm sure you are as well, but ultimately it doesn't bring us any closer together on the issue.
...and yes, there is a documented agreement which was located in the archives...I wonder why is was conveniently archived ?
Quoting Mikhail Gorbachev in an interview from 2014
"The topic of 'NATO expansion' was never discussed; it was not raised in those years. I am saying this with a full sense of responsibility. Not a single Eastern European country brought up the issue, not even after the Warsaw Pact had ceased to exist in 1991,"
Whether or not guarantees where given that NATO would not expand east, looks at what Putin's actions have done. They have strengthened support for NATO, not a single eastern European country who is a member state of NATO would think it be a good idea to leave the alliance after a non member of NATO was just invaded. They would consider themselves too exposed For the first time ever the Finnish population supports NATO membership and for the love of monkeys they just got the Germans to re-arm and spend more than 2% of its GDP on its military, other Western countries have for years tried to get the Germans to spend more on their military without success but Putin's actions have caused them to do it. What's more Germany due to its military history with Russian in WW2 was extremely loath to be too critical of Russia and wanted to be the European country that held out its hands as an olive branch to Russia as away of making amends. But now that sympathetic voice towards Russia in central Europe is gone. People talk about how you shouldn't poke the Russian bear, but Russia has just poked an economic giant in central Europe out of its slumber and got them to re-arm. And to top it all off, the USA who's foreign policy was pivoting away from Europe and towards Asia-Pacific has been pulled back into Eastern Europe. Bravo Mr Putin you have got the exact opposite of what you wanted!
But honestly its not about NATO, that's just an excuse Putin is using for an aggressive action. What Putin wants is to resurrect a sort of Russian Imperium that will either directly incorporate former Russian territory back into the Russian federation or semi-autonomous vassal states with puppet rulers who take their orders from Moscow.