#4
Russia against NATO enlargement on eve of summit
By Richard Balmforth
MOSCOW, May 27 (Reuters) - Russia stubbornly clung to its opposition to NATO enlargement on Monday even as President Vladimir Putin prepared for a meeting with leaders of Russia's old foe to inaugurate a new 20-nation joint body.
As Putin readied to fly to Rome for a summit on Tuesday with NATO leaders, Russia's biggest Slav ally, Ukraine, provided Moscow policy-makers with fresh food for thought, saying Kiev also aspired to membership of the U.S.-led military alliance.
Putin has already softened Moscow's criticism of NATO plans to expand east as part of his broad pro-Western foreign policy but has to contend with scepticism from both the public and conservatives and military hawks.
"We unequivocally see it as a mistake," Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko told RIA Novosti news agency in comments later attributed to a Kremlin source.
"From our point of view, enlargement provides nobody -- not NATO itself and not its new members -- with additional security. From whom is NATO preparing to defend its new members? And why is such a defence needed if we are no longer enemies and the period of confrontation is over?"
Nevertheless, Putin's summit in Rome follows on the heels of a successful summit in Russia with U.S. President George W. Bush which has boosted his standing further at home.
Although, in Rome, Putin may well have no choice but to repeat Russia's concern about the steady expansion of NATO towards its borders, he has also been increasingly adamant that arms reduction with the United States and the new NATO-Russia Council will lay the Cold War to rest.
COOPERATION AS EQUALS
The new forum will bring together Russia and the 19 Western allies as equals to cooperate on issues including peacekeeping, arms control and common security threats such as terrorism and the spread of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.
Analysts say if it works effectively, it will strengthen Putin's hand in taking on conservatives and military hawks at home who have a gut resistance to dealings with NATO.
Adding to a new sense of change, NATO dusted down old furniture -- mothballed when ties took a turn for the worse three years ago -- and opened a new mission in Moscow on Monday to oversee military ties with Russia in the new relationship.
The shift towards NATO membership made by Ukraine, which treads carefully on the issue because of its heavy economic reliance on Moscow, could be used by Putin to twist the arm of military hardliners if they obstruct these ties in the future.
Ukraine now says it has set membership of NATO as a long-term political goal, though President Leonid Kuchma prudently added that integration would be a lengthy process.
In an unusually mild reaction on Monday, Colonel-General Yuri Baluyevsky, Russia's first deputy chief of staff, told reporters: "That the Ukraine is considering contacts with NATO is logical. Our position, the military position, is that every state has the right to make these decisions."
At a practical level, Russia may be unable to keep up opposition to expansion when, after the next round of enlargement to be decided later this year, it has to take its council seat next to new members such as Slovenia or Slovakia.
Some analysts say it may only be a matter of time before Moscow quietly lets its opposition die away altogether.
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