Ukraine crisis: Former Nato chief says UK should do more to combat Vladimir Putin's rewriting of history

UK ministers must do more to combat Vladimir Putin's attempt to "rewrite history" over Ukraine, a former secretary general of Nato has said.

George Robertson, a former Labour defence secretary who led Nato from 1999 to 2004, warned "we are not doing enough to win the battle of the narratives".

He said the Russian president was trying to rewrite "not just the history of Ukraine and Russia, but his own personal history".

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Lord Robertson. Picture: Neil HannaLord Robertson. Picture: Neil Hanna
Lord Robertson. Picture: Neil Hanna
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Speaking to The Scotsman before Russia launched its invasion, the Labour peer recalled standing next to Mr Putin at a press conference in 2002, when the Russian leader called Ukraine "an independent, sovereign nation state".

Lord Robertson said: "I think we are not doing enough to win the battle of the narratives.

"Putin is putting it about, essentially, and I noticed that [Alex Salmond's] Alba Party is now parroting this line, that Russia was promised that Nato enlargement wouldn't take place, and it wouldn't go beyond the East German border etc, and this is just rubbish.

"The Paris treaty signed by [former Russian president Boris] Yeltsin and the Nato-Russia Founding Act signed by Yeltsin all guaranteed that countries had the right to make their own decision about their own security.”

Lord Robertson said Mr Putin himself signed the Rome Declaration in 2002, which endorsed the Founding Act.

The peer said the Founding Act made clear “both parties will respect the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of all states”.

He added: "Sitting in front of me is the signature of Vladimir Putin to that sentiment, so the narrative that they were conned and he never signed up to these things is wrong.

"He signed that, and these are the words that were used. And not only that, he actually said more than that.

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"At the press conference that followed that signature, he stood beside me and he said, I quote, 'Ukraine is an independent, sovereign nation state and it will choose it's own path to peace and security'.”

Lord Robertson continued: "We need to make it clear that these things were said in 2002, and now he is trying to rewrite history – not just the history of Ukraine and Russia, but his own personal history in terms of guaranteeing the territorial integrity of this country that he is now involved in invading."

The peer said the UK Government needed “to do much more in terms of promoting” this.

He said: "It needs to be done and we need to get that message to the Russian people as well.”

Lord Robertson added: "We have got to publicly, and in fact Boris Johnson did it at the weekend and [foreign secretary] Liz Truss did it when she was in Moscow, but with little notice, and that was basically to commend and thank the Russian people for their sacrifices during the Second World War, which in itself meant that you and I are having this conversation in English and not German today.

"We need to get that message over … that we appreciate what they did in the past, that we don't see them as being conflated with Vladimir Putin and anyway Putin signed up to give security guarantees to his neighbour that he is now breaking, as well as breaking international law."

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