NATO, Go East

AS NATO expansion moves ahead after the Madrid Summit, the issue of how to deal with Russia will not vanish. Whether or not the expansion into Central Europe succeeds-but especially if it does-it is vital to develop a relationship with Russia for the long run.

Russia is bitterly opposed to the expansion of a NATO from which Russia is permanently excluded. Why? Boris Berezovsky, Deputy Secretary of the Russian Security Council and the most uninhibited of the new Westernizers, explains that such exclusion would “separate Russia from Europe and in effect put it in geopolitical opposition to the family of Western democracies.” This in turn would shape Russia’s identity in an anti-Western way-perhaps for generations.

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Ira Straus

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AS NATO expansion moves ahead after the Madrid Summit, the issue of how to deal with Russia will not vanish. Whether or not the expansion into Central Europe succeeds-but especially if it does-it is vital to develop a relationship with Russia for the long run.

Russia is bitterly opposed to the expansion of a NATO from which Russia is permanently excluded. Why? Boris Berezovsky, Deputy Secretary of the Russian Security Council and the most uninhibited of the new Westernizers, explains that such exclusion would “separate Russia from Europe and in effect put it in geopolitical opposition to the family of Western democracies.” This in turn would shape Russia’s identity in an anti-Western way-perhaps for generations.