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strana.ru
May 16, 2002
Will the Bubble Burst at the Russia-U.S. Summit?
Political elites buoyed by progress in U.S. - Russia Relations
By Victoria Whall

A "man on the street" opinion poll on NATO-Russia relations, in which 46% of Russians asked responded that they were against entry into the alliance, presents a very different picture to the one the Russian political elite has been disseminating in recent weeks. Approximately 34% of those queried indicated they were in favor of entry, with 20% undecided.

The results of the poll, which was carried out by the Public Opinion Foundation May 4-5th, demonstrates that the Russian public is far from certain that Russia should be allying itself with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. 52% of the 1,500 people asked said the bloc posed a threat to Russia's security, with only 31% responding that it did not, which would suggest that for many, the cold war is still a reality.

However, as far as the U.S. and Russian Foreign Ministers, Colin Powell and Igor Ivanov are concerned, the cold war is now over. This was confirmed when they speaking at a press conference in Reykjavik on Tuesday.

But the Russian mass media has resisted getting swept away by the "new era" rhetoric, remaining suspicious of the new alliance. Coverage of the recent NATO and Russia ministerial talks focuses on the limits of the soon to be established Russia-NATO Council, and which side had gained/lost the most in the NATO deal.

The new joint policy-making body will take cooperation to another level by enabling Russia and NATO to work together on security issues, but two of the core features of NATO membership will not hold for Russia, namely the right to veto NATO actions and the principle that an attack on one member is considered an attack on all.

The chairman of the Federation Council's Committee for International Affairs Mikhail Margelov seems satisfied with this.

"In keeping with the formula chosen by the Russian President, we are ready to go as far in our cooperation with NATO as the alliance itself is ready to accept it," Margelov told reporters on Tuesday.

He for one didn't seem to think that Russia had done more than it should have to reach agreement with the U.S., underlining that Russia's national interests would not be sacrificed in the name of closer cooperation.

"This formula also says that (our cooperation will go as far) as the alliance is ready to respect Russia's national interests," the Chairman said.

Meanwhile, since President Bush boasted recently that he is no more worried about Moscow's nuclear arms than about Britain's, experts are worried that the U.S. political elite might be getting ahead of itself.

Michael McFaul, an expert on the U.S.-Russia relationship, has expressed concern that American leaders are not seeing the real Russia. He said that there was always an understandable risk of American leaders seeing the country through the eyes of the people they dealt with in Moscow, Reuters reported Wednesday.

Progress in bilateral relations, Mr. McFaul said, could lead to U.S. leaders forgetting that Russia is not a consolidated democracy, and blind them to the threat that Russia could still slide into autocracy in the next decade.

If the American leadership has been looking at Russia through rose-tinted glass, they will soon realize their mistake. Sentiments of the average Russian on the street towards the U.S. will come to the surface when President Bush makes his first official visit to Russia next week.

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