East Germany of course merged into Bundesrepublic Deutschland (aka West-Germany, although that formally was not the country name), and thus NATO, in 1990.
OK pall, why don't you show me those engineered revolutions, orchestrated political unrest etc in Poland, Hungary, Czech republic (all joined 1999 upon invitation), Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia (all joined 2004), Albania and Croatia (joined 2009) and Montenegro (joined 2017). You can't because it is BS.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Member_states_of_NATO
DOCUMENT your claim.
Between 1994 and 1997, wider forums for regional cooperation between NATO and its neighbors were set up, including the
Partnership for Peace, the
Mediterranean Dialogue initiative and the
Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council. I suggest you check their member ship.
The Partnership for Peace (PfP) is a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) program aimed at creating trust between NATO and other states in Europe and the former Soviet Union;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partnership_for_Peace
(included 12
Former republics of the Soviet Union, including Russia)
The Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council (EAPC), a post-Cold War NATO institution, is a multilateral forum created to improve relations between NATO and non-NATO countries in Europe and those parts of Asia on the European periphery.There are 50 members, the 29 NATO member countries and 21 partner countries . 12 former Soviet republics, including RUssia
IIRC Russia has never formally applied for NATO membership. Hence, it CANNOT have been prevented to join. Which does not mean the possibility was never suggested and discussed at various times by various people in various fora....
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO–Russia_relations#Suggestions_of_Russia_joining_NATO
Molotov's Proposal that the USSR Join NATO, March 1954
https://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/molotovs-proposal-the-ussr-join-nato-march-1954
Well the below news from 2001 directly quotes Putin himself asking NATO to open doors for Russia. Russia's proposal to join NATO in 1954 before Warsaw pact came into existence in 1955 was also rejected.
Putin wants NATO to let Russia join
Associated Press
Published: July 18, 2001 12:00 a.m.Updated: July 18, 2001 10:45 a.m.
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MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday that his country should be allowed to join NATO or the alliance should be disbanded and replaced by a new body that includes all of Europe and Russia.
In his first major Kremlin news conference, Putin also said Russia has no plans for a joint response with China to counter U.S. moves to build a missile defense system. The prospect of a coordinated stance was raised by Putin's meetings this week with the Chinese president.
The Russian president — who in two days attends the G-8 summit in Italy gathering the leaders of the world's top economic nations — said the U.S.-led NATO alliance has outlived its usefulness, having been created during the Cold War to oppose the Soviet bloc.
"There is no more Warsaw Pact, no more Soviet Union, but NATO continues to exist and develop," he said.
"We do not see it as an enemy," he said. "We do not see a tragedy in its existence, but we also see no need for it."
NATO's expansion into Eastern Europe creates "different levels of security on the continent ... which does not correspond to today's realities and is not caused by any political or military necessity."
He called instead for the creation of a "single security and defense space in Europe," which he said could be achieved either by disbanding NATO, or by Russia joining it, or by the creation of a new body in which Russia could become an equal partner.
NATO spokesman Robert Pszczel said the current partnership between Russia and the alliance had reached a "level of maturity" that benefits both sides, even if there are disagreements.
"We have no doubt that the relationship, the partnership ... has a good, solid future based on mutual interest," he said in Brussels, Belgium.
The NATO-Russia Permanent Joint Council, created in 1997, holds regular sessions to give Russia a forum to raise issues, and the two sides are cooperating in several regions, including the Balkans.
The Kremlin gathering Wednesday was the first time Putin has allowed such a large, open press conference in Moscow, with some 500 journalists, no pre-screened questions and opportunities for follow-ups — a sign of the leader's growing confidence after 19 months in power. Putin used the opportunity to lay out a range of foreign and domestic policies.
But despite the tone which could seem anti-American at times, Putin was full of praise for his U.S. counterpart, President Bush.
"I do not share the opinion of those who say he lacks experience," Putin said, describing Bush as a warm person, pleasant to talk to and even "a little bit sentimental."
His comments on China came days after Putin signed a comprehensive friendship treaty with Chinese President Jiang Zemin, which had raised prospects for a joint stance against U.S. plans to develop a missile shield and scrap the Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty.
Both countries staunchly oppose the U.S. plans and warn it could spark a new arms race.
But Putin appeared to rule out coordinating with China. "We have enough means to respond to any changes ourselves," he said.
Putin spoke as U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell met in Italy with his Russian counterpart, Igor Ivanov, in talks dominated by the American missile defense plans.
Powell later described the two-hour meeting as "very, very friendly" and Ivanov said Russia was still open to "a constructive dialogue" despite the wedge missile defense has driven in relations.
"The success of this dialogue will, by and large, determine the strategic stability of the entire world," Ivanov said.
In a joint statement after their talks earlier this week, Jiang and Putin said the 1972 ABM treaty was a "cornerstone of strategic stability" that must be preserved.
But they did not comment on the United States' successful test of a missile interceptor on Sunday — suggesting suggests two countries do not view Washington's plans quite the same way.
In the news conference, Putin also called for peace in the Middle East, saying the current Israeli-Palestinian violence has "practically erased" past progress on finding a solution. He also spoke in favor of lifting sanctions against Iraq.
He dismissed calls to remove the body of Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin from a Red Square mausoleum, saying it could lead to civil unrest. He also praised a series of reform laws recently adopted by the parliament's lower house as a move toward "liberalization of the economy and the exclusion of unfounded state intervention."
Putin appeared at ease at the press conference, answering every question and going beyond the scheduled one-hour length.
Previously, Putin had confined his interviews mostly to carefully managed sessions where his staff tried to screen most questions, or to meetings with small groups of reporters where follow-up questions were frowned upon.
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/853851/Putin-wants-NATO-to-let-Russia-join.html
Molotov's Proposal that the USSR Join NATO, March 1954
CWIHP e-Dossier No. 27
The document below is a translation of V. M. Molotov’s proposal to the Soviet Presidium in March 1954 that the USSR should issue a diplomatic note to the Western powers stating its willingness to consider joining NATO. The background to Molotov's memorandum was the launch of the Soviet campaign for European collective security at the Berlin Conference of Foreign Ministers in February 1954. At that conference Molotov proposed the Soviet alternative to western plans for a European Defense Community (EDC) involving the participation of a rearmed West Germany—the conclusion of a pan-European collective security treaty. This proposal was linked in tum to a further set of Soviet proposals on the German question, including Germany's reunification and neutralization in the cold war.
Molotov's collective security proposal was rejected by western representatives on two grounds. Firstly, because the United States was excluded from the proposed treaty and relegated, together with Communist China, to observer status. Secondly, because the Soviet proposal aimed, it was said, to disrupt NATO as well as halt the formation of the EDC. Molotov responded to these criticisms by saying that the Soviet proposal could be amended and that he was open to persuasion about the value of NATO as a defensive organization.
When Molotov returned to Moscow he tasked Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko to formulate proposals on the furtherance of the Soviet collective security campaign. On 10 March Gromyko presented Molotov a draft note for the Presidium proposing that the Soviet position on European collective security should be amended (a) to allow full US participation in the system and (b) the possibility of the USSR joining NATO.
[1] Further drafts were presented to Molotov on 20 and 24 March.
[2] These drafts were corrected in detail by Molotov. The major change made by Molotov was to delete Gromyko's statement that the USSR would join NATO on certain conditions and to substitute the formulation that the Soviet Union was prepared to discuss the matter with interested parties. He also added a paragraph stating that the implications of possible Soviet membership of NATO had to be considered even now (see paragraph 9 in the document below). The final version of the note was sent Malenkov and Khrushchev on 26 March, together with the text of the proposed Soviet statement to the Western powers. This text was issued, unaltered, to Britain, France and the United States on 31 March 1954. It announced two amendments to the Soviet draft treaty on European collective security: the United States would not be excluded from formal participation in a system of pan-European collective security and if NATO relinquished its aggressive character the USSR would consider participation in the organization. In those circumstances, concluded the note, NATO "would cease to be a closed military alignment of states and would be open to other European countries which, together with the creation of an effective system of European collective security, would be of cardinal importance for the promotion of universal peace."
[3]
The administrative process through which the Soviet proposal was produced internally was typical of Molotov's foreign ministry i.e. the production of numerous drafts by his deputies that he personally hand-corrected before they were sent to the Presidium (in the first instance to Khrushchev and Malenkov) for approval. It was unusual, however, for Molotov to present the Presidium with a long, discursive memorandum justifying what was being proposed. Usually, he just sent a short note enclosing the foreign ministry's proposals which were then discussed in personal conversation at the Presidium level. On this occasion Molotov evidently felt the need for an advance written justification of what was being proposed.
Readers can judge for themselves what the document tells us about the character of the Soviet campaign for European collective security but it seems clear that (a) the reformulation of the Soviet position on 31 March 1954 was designed to further that campaign and (b) that while Molotov thought it unlikely the proposal would succeed (c) he did not rule out the possibility of the USSR joining NATO under certain conditions. It should be noted, too, that while propaganda advantage was an argument the foreign ministry frequently deployed in its submissions to the Presidium that did not mean the proposals were not seriously intended as well.
In May 1954 the Western powers rejected the Soviet proposal to join NATO on grounds that the USSR's membership of the organization would be incompatible with its democratic and defensive aims. However, Moscow's extensive and intensive campaign for European collective security continued until the Geneva Foreign Ministers Conference of October-November 1955.
[4]
Geoffrey Roberts is Professor and Head of the School of History at University College Cork, Ireland. His latest book is Molotov: Stalin's Cold Warrior, Potomac Books, 2011.
Footnotes
[1] Foreign Policy Archives of the Russian Federation (Arkhiv Vneshnei Politiki Rossiiskoi Federatsii, or AVP RF), F. 6, Op. l3, Pap. 2, D. 9, Ll. 20-25. I am grateful to Alexei Filitov for bringing the existence of this file to my attention.
[2] Ibid., Ll. 34-37, 44-55.
[3] "Note of the Soviet Government… 31 March 1954," Supplement to
New Times, no. 14, 3 April 1954.
[4] For a more in-depth discussion, see
Geoffrey Roberts, “A Chance for Peace? The Soviet Campaign to End the Cold War, 1953-1955,” Working Paper No. 57, Cold War International History Project, December 2008.
https://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/molotovs-proposal-the-ussr-join-nato-march-1954
