Jonathan Gorse (Letters, 22 July) accepts the justification for Vladimir Putin’s attacks on Ukraine that “the west” enticed states that were clearly within Russia’s sphere of influence to join an alliance that threatened Russia. The reality is that the states that emerged from the USSR looked both to Nato and the EU to guarantee their new-won independence, and were met initially by cautious and reluctant responses.
In December 1991, I was asked by a team from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard to join them in advising the newly independent government of Ukraine on its international priorities. At the opening session, Ukraine’s foreign minister declared that his country had “two strategic priorities for the next two years: to join Nato, and to join the EU”. My American colleagues left it to me to explain how slow and painful a transition Ukraine would face in qualifying for full membership of either body. The Baltic states and Georgia all made similarly optimistic declarations of their intent to join these institutions as soon as they could.
William Wallace
Liberal Democrat, House of Lords
