#6596
#12
Trud
#221
December 9-15, 2002
[translation from RIA Novosti for personal use only]
RUSSIA AND NATO IN SEARCH OF COMMON LANGUAGE
New members have joined NATO. The bloc has come close to the Russian border. Our former East-European allies and the three Baltic states have joined the ranks of the North-Atlantic alliance. Meanwhile, the West is not yet ready to make Russia its integrated ally. Can our country feel comfortable in this situation? How will NATO expansion tell on the alignment of forces in the world? Sergei MARKOV, Director of the Institute of Political Studies, talks on this subject in an interview with Trud's Vladimir IGNATOV.
Question: The NATO eastward expansion, which has just taken place, is a free choice of free states, which choose Europe, well-being, stability and security. NATO is acting in this case as a military-political foundation of united Europe. It would seem that in this sense, NATO expansion is natural and absolutely normal, isn't it?
Answer: However, the situation concerning the Baltic countries is not so simple. I mean Latvia and Estonia. The problem is that Latvia and Estonia are not democratic countries. In fact, these are ethnocratic countries, where up to a third of the population does not enjoy civil rights in full, because they are Russians. Latvia and Estonia are states which have made racial discrimination their political base... A considerable part of people in power in these countries are striving to take "a historical revenge" on the Russians. This makes them repress 90-year-old people, thereby rehabilitating Nazism in a way.
To all accounts, the activity of the nationalist governments of Latvia and Estonia will constantly create pretexts for conflicts between Russia and NATO, unless these countries become truly democratic, and unless NATO makes them raise the status of the Russian language and immediately grant the Russian-speaking population all civil rights...
Question: Will it?
Answer: I doubt it. No one in the alliance is talking about this so far. In my opinion, the fast admittance of Latvia and Estonia to NATO is, in fact, a manifestation of the Russophobia of some NATO politicians. They are talking about the defense of democracy which the regimes preaching racial discrimination just cannot have. The West is talking a lot about Lukashenko as Europe's last dictator, however, in terms of democratization and the protection of human rights, Latvia and Estonia are on the same level with Belarus.
Question: So what should we, the Russians do now? Should we start fearing the West more?
Answer: We are now looking at NATO expansion approximately the way people in the West looked at the growth of the socialist camp in the past - they were terribly afraid of it and practically did not notice the serious changes that led to the collapse of the Soviet bloc in the late 1980s. The same thing is happening to NATO - it is expanding and breaking, we can even talk about the crisis of NATO. Just imagine an organization where 20-30 members have the right of veto. Such a community cannot make decisions. Yet another factor is that the politicians in the countries of Eastern and Central Europe are much more corrupt than West-European ones. They are getting access to the NATO resources and levers now. Back during the Soviet times there was a popular anecdote among Soviet generals that the best way to break up NATO is to appoint officers from some East-European country to command the alliance' s quartermaster service. This anecdote is becoming a reality now.
Question: It turns out that we should expect an early break-up of NATO?
Answer: Rather, the bloc's transformation. The bi-polar system of the confrontation of the two systems has collapsed and a need arisen for a new structure of European security. The OSCE could not assume this role and so, NATO is trying to occupy this niche. However, the alliance does not yet know what to do with it. There are two NATOs now - the old and the new one, as it were. The old NATO of the Cold War times as a guarantor of protection against outside aggression and an instrument of global wars is practically not needed now. Even during the military operation in Afghanistan NATO was useless, the Americans just did not need it. The new NATO is an attempt to strengthen international cooperation in various aspects of security, the consolidation of states within the framework of united Europe, the creation of a mechanism of decision-making on settling local conflicts. NATO is working more efficiently in this field.
Question: Is there a place for Russia in the new NATO?
Answer: Russia has no prospects of joining NATO in the near future. We have a very long border, archaic political institutes and a very weak public control over armed forces. In fact, Russia does not need NATO as a guarantor of security. So far, we have been able to defend ourselves on our own. At the same time, Russia-NATO cooperation in international security issues is developing rather actively within the framework of the so-called Twenty.
Question: While talking about NATO, one cannot not but mention the main participant in the bloc, situated far from Europe - the United States. Our officials usually describe Russian-US relations as "partnership." What are the prospects of this partnership?
Answer: I think that Russian-US relations will become more and more allied. It is clear that the new rules of the game in the world arena and new institutes are being formed. Look at who is forming them. Europe is trying to dodge, as usual. China is moving ahead at a great speed and experiencing great loads. It is too busy to think about the transformation of the world. In real earnest, Bush, Putin, Blair and... bin Laden are taking part in forming a new world order. A coalition for combating international terrorism, which includes first of all, Russia, the USA, Britain and Israel, is being created right before our very eyes. These countries are oriented to resolute resistance to terrorism, while the Europeans are stubbornly criticizing these four for an allegedly excessive use of force, but disassociating themselves from the elaboration of a new course with regard to world terrorism, reluctant to assume responsibility in principle.
Question: Can one talk about a resolute turn in Russian foreign policy to the West or is this just a tactical move, a temporary use of the situation in Russia's national interests?
Answer: Our president is a European by education and upbringing. This is why Russia's movement to the values of western democracies is his organic conscious choice. Practically all of the current Russian political elite is oriented to the West. The overwhelming majority of Russians consider themselves Europeans and want to live western style. This is why the strategic course to the West is logical and inevitable. The West has concentrated in its hands the main resources: financial, political and cultural. What's the point quarreling with the main center of force? We should cooperate with it. We have only two variants - either to spitefully harp on our "exclusiveness" or take part in building a new world community, but as a subject, not an object.
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