What Really Happened in the Nineties?

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Robert Carlyle takes us back to moments we missed in the '90s that shaped the world today.

Cancel culture, Brexit, identity politics. How did we get here? Did we miss something? Robert Carlyle is here to show us that we did. And it happened in the '90s.

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What Really Happened in the Nineties?: 2. Russia

2. Russia

BBC Radio 4 - What Really Happened in the Nineties?, 2. Russia

Was Gorbachev really promised that Nato wouldn't move one inch further east?

Was Gorbachev really promised that Nato would not move one inch east in talks about Germany's re-unification in 1990?

Here we are in 2022 navigating cancel culture, Brexit, identity politics, war in Europe. 

How did we get here? Did we miss something? Robert Carlyle, who played the wildcard Begbie in the '90s hit Trainspotting, is here to show us that we did. That the world we live in was shaped by the forgotten decade: the 1990s. 

From Hong Kong to Moscow, Cool Britannia to No Frills flights, we travel back in time to key moments in the '90s that reverberate today in unexpected ways.

Episode 2: Russia

Robert Carlyle reveals how talks  between Russia and the West in 1990 about Germany's re-unification has lead to the war in Ukraine. Was President Gorbachev really promised that NATO would not move one inch east, as Vladimir Putin recently claimed ? We hear from historians Margaret MacMillan and Mary Sarotte, author of Not One Inch, and from eye-witness Bob Zoellick, former United States Deputy Secretary of State.

Producer: Stephen Hughes
Sound Designer/Composer: Phil Channell
Consultant: Professor Margaret MacMillan

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What Really Happened in the Nineties?

2. Russia

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