Superpower Alliance: How the US and Russia Joined Forces to Strip Soviet States of Power

 The Superpower Alliance: How the US and Russia Stripped Soviet Successor States of Power

At the time of the Soviet Union's (USSR) dissolution, history witnessed a peculiar spectacle. Two superpowers, which had spent the previous 45 years in a race to destroy one another, suddenly began speaking in unison. Washington and Moscow shared a single agenda: to strip Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Belarus of their nuclear security shields.

According to documents cited by US foreign policy expert Charlie Carpenter and historian Mary Elise Sarotte (author of *Not One Inch*), this entire episode was framed as a move for global peace; behind the scenes, however, it was a calculated diplomatic strategy designed to preserve a superpower duopoly.

1. The Washington-Moscow Unspoken Alliance (The Condominium Effect)

Reports from Harvard University’s Belfer Center and leaked transcripts of conversations between then-US President George H.W. Bush and Russian President Boris Yeltsin reveal that the US was less concerned about the dissolution of Russia itself than it was about the prospect of nuclear weapons being scattered across multiple nations.

In an article written during that period, US diplomat Henry Kissinger warned that "multiple small states armed with nuclear weapons would pose a major challenge to global stability." Russia adeptly exploited this fear. It assured the US that if Washington helped exert pressure on these states, Moscow would safely secure the weapons. Consequently, the US recognized Russia as the sole legal successor to the Soviet Union, effectively sidelining the other states both technically and legally.

2. The 'Chicken Kyiv' Speech and the Double Standard of US Diplomacy

Just before the formal collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, US President George H.W.  Bush delivered a famous speech to the Ukrainian parliament (the Rada)—known in history as the "Chicken Kiev Speech."

In this speech, Bush warned the people of Ukraine against "suicidal nationalism" and urged them not to rush into breaking away from the Soviet Union.

According to a research paper by international affairs expert William Alberque, the US had absolutely no desire for a country like Ukraine to emerge as an independent, sovereign, and militarily strong power, as controlling a powerful Ukraine would have been difficult for Washington.

3. Economic Blackmail and Diplomatic Isolation

To weaken the nations emerging from the Soviet Union, the US and Russia adopted a "carrot and stick" policy:

Threat of economic blockade: Ukraine was grappling with a severe economic crisis at the time. The US and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) made it clear that if Ukraine insisted on retaining its nuclear missiles (such as the SS-19 and SS-24), it would receive no loans or financial aid from the international community.

Russia's technological coercion: Moscow refused to supply the components necessary for the maintenance of Ukraine's nuclear weapons. Without Russian cooperation, those weapons would have become obsolete within a few years.

The then-Ukrainian President Leonid Kravchuk later wrote in his memoirs:

"We were left with no choice. From Washington to Moscow, everyone viewed us as a 'pariah' state. We were told that if we did not hand over the weapons, severe sanctions would be imposed on us."

4. The Budapest Memorandum (1994): A Calculated Deception

According to analyses by world-renowned international law experts and Yale University professors, the 1994 Budapest Memorandum was a legal sham.  Both the US and Russia knew that the "security assurances" being offered to Ukraine were not "security guarantees."

A deliberate legal loophole: US diplomats shrewdly used the word "assurances" instead of "guarantees" in the document. This meant that if any country attacked Ukraine, the US would raise the matter in the UN Security Council but would not be obligated to send troops for its defense.

Exploiting the Russian veto: The US was well aware that Russia held veto power in the Security Council; therefore, no action against Russia could ever be passed there.

Expert conclusion: New nations falling victim to a 'dictatorial' order.

Renowned realist geopolitical expert John Mearsheimer wrote a highly accurate and prescient article in *Foreign Affairs* magazine in 1993. He warned that:

"If Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons, it would become completely vulnerable to Russian aggression. A nuclear-free Ukraine would neither be saved by the West nor allowed to live in peace by Russia."

Today, Mearsheimer's prediction has proven 100% accurate. In the 1990s, acting like a global dictator, the US rendered Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Belarus completely powerless in order to maintain its own and Russia's nuclear hegemony (nuclear monopolism) over the world.

The entire world is now bearing the consequences of this selfish US diplomacy—while Ukraine is being devastated in the power games of superpowers, the threat of a nuclear war between NATO and Russia looms constantly