Elon Musk sparked a firestorm of debate after he posted a video on X challenging the Russia-Ukraine conflict narrative. The video, which includes American economist Jeffrey D. Sachs, contends that it’s the United States, not Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is to blame for the ongoing war.
A key figure in President-elect Donald Trump's campaign, Musk shared a controversial post that takes a different view of the war's origins. Sachs, an outspoken critic of U.S. foreign policy, says that NATO expansion and not Russian aggression were the biggest causes of the conflict.
Sachs lambastes the Biden administration's repeated use of the term 'unprovoked' to describe Russia's actions in the video. However, he contends that this characterisation is misleading and ignores the complex historical background of U.S.-Russia relations.
The economist notes a 1990 promise of NATO not to expand eastward that it made to Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev. Sachs says Russia broke this pledge, setting off a chain of events that increased the tension between Russia and the West.
Perhaps most surprising of all, Sachs claims that Putin was once open to NATO membership and wanted a'mutually respectful relationship' with the West. Yet he says U.S. actions, including the 2002 withdrawal from the anti-ballistic missile treaty, soured these prospects.
Musk's release of the video has brought the war's true causes back into the discussions. But critics say this perspective is too simplistic to describe a complicated geopolitical situation; supporters say it challenges the prevailing story.
