#6 - JRL 6585
Russia not to join NATO, premier Kasyanov says
ITAR-TASS

Berlin, 2 December: The Russian population's income should reach the European level in 10 years, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov has said. Speaking at a symposium devoted to transformations in Eastern Europe, held in Berlin on Monday [2 December], Kasyanov said: "We have set ourselves this ambitious goal."

Responding to a question about the possibility of Russia's accession to NATO, he stressed: "Russia is not going to join the Alliance." "We are talking about the complete elimination of elements of mistrust that existed between us and partly exist," he said.

Kasyanov noted the importance of the decision to create the Russia-NATO Council and expressed confidence that further relations between Russia and the North Atlantic Alliance will develop within this framework. He said NATO should confirm positive changes in its position with regard to Russia.

Kasyanov is in Berlin on a visit to take part in celebrations marking the 50th anniversary of the Eastern Committee of the German Economy.

"If NATO member states show that their missiles are not aimed at Russia, Russian people will believe that the expansion of the North Atlantic Alliance is not directed against Russia," he said.

Russian people are suffering from a mistrust syndrome because in the past Russia and the West lived in conditions of confrontation. "As a result, an element of this mistrust took root in everybody's mind," the prime minister added.

Having noted that political and economic transformations in East European countries have been practically finished, Kasyanov said these processes are slower in Russia because "unlike other countries, Russia has traversed a somewhat different historical path".

He congratulated the participants in the symposium on the jubilee of the Eastern Committee of the German Economy that "took the most active part in the development of relations with the Soviet Union, and now with Russia".