Kasparov on Budapest Memorandum

[Paprika]

Kasparov's perspective is often coloured by an anti-Putin sentiments, leading him to advocate aggressive policies by the West against Russia, but he made the following excellent point (starting 2:25):

Let us not forget that Ukraine has been guaranteed, in 1994, the protection of its territorial integrity by the United States. Ukraine gave up nukes! Very few people remember it was the third-largest nuclear arsenal in the world. [Not honouring the gurantee] is very bad, not only for the United States – Bill Clinton's signature was there. Ukraine gave up twelve hundred nuclear warheads, more than England, France and China combined, in exchange for guarantees from America and Great Britain. This will have implications way beyond Ukraine's borders, because it destroys the credibility of the White House, it destroys the credibility of the free world, and it sends a message, let's say to Iran, that you need nukes to protect your borders. Same can apply to Japan, South Korea, countries that are facing a rising threat from China. It will be a totally different world unless we follow the promises written on paper and signed by the leaders of the free world.

[myth]

I'm glad the U.S. is avoiding a war with Russia over Ukraine. But...he does have a point. If the U.S. hadn't felt the need to disarm Ukraine, this probably wouldn't be happening right now (of course, several cities could also be smoldering ruins of radioactive decay, too).

[Darth Executor]

Ukraine wouldn't have been able to maintain the nukes anyway, that costs money and they don't have any. Odds are they'd have turned into an ecological disaster.

[myth]

Ukraine wouldn't have been able to maintain the nukes anyway, that costs money and they don't have any. Odds are they'd have turned into an ecological disaster.

Maybe.