[zhdc1]

> The US made an agreement under George HW Bush that they would not extend the boundaries of the NATO area beyond West(!) Germany.

Is this what you're talking about? https://www.chathamhouse.org/2021/05/myths-and-misconception...

> However, Gorbachev neither asked for nor was given any formal guarantees that there would be no further expansion of NATO beyond the territory of a united Germany.34 The issue was not even under discussion at NATO at the time, since the Warsaw Pact and the USSR were both still in existence. Even if the Warsaw Pact’s days were clearly numbered, there was no expectation in Western capitals in the autumn of 1990 that the USSR would collapse a year later.

Compare with https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/new-atlanticist/russia...

> As early as December 1991, Russian President Boris Yeltsin wrote to NATO leaders saying that his country would join the Alliance some time in the future. Yeltsin’s successor Vladimir Putin, hinted during his first presidential term that Russia could become a full fledged member of the Atlantic Alliance.