From Nato to Pesco - Rodolfo Ragonesi

Thanks to Wikileaks’ release of correspondence, leaked by transparency hero Chelsea Manning in 2009, which gave rise to Cablegate, the world became privy to all the secret lobbying and deals made involving Nato build-ups and expansion in Europe. From released cables, we know that Nato officials had been so lobbying for years, but Germany would have none of it, and it came to nothing.

Until, that is, Chancellor Angela Merkel, daughter of a pastor, was returned to power in October 2009 with an exclusive right-wing coalition with the FDP and CSU, rather than with the Greens and Social Democrats. Her new government promptly supported Nato lobbyists’ policy for a build-up in Poland and the Baltic States right on Russia’s doorstep, in what was called Project Eagle Guardian, in blatant breach of firm undertakings given to President Gorbachev in the 1990s. This sudden volte face was kept secret from the German electorate and European citizens.

Such commitments to Russia were vehemently denied, until archived documents were unearthed by the Washington State University, showing that on the February 9, 1990, US Secretary of State James Baker declared in Moscow that the US would make...