RUSSIAN PRESIDENT HOLDING A MEETING TODAY ON THE PROPOSED NATO EXPANSION

MOSCOW, JANUARY 6. RIA NOVOSTI - Russian President Boris Yeltsin is holding a meeting today on the proposed enlargement of NATO. As a RIA Novosti correspondent was told in the presidential press service, taking part in the meeting are Chairman of the Government Viktor Chernomyrdin, Minister of Foreign Affairs Yevgeny Primakov, Presidential Chief of Staff Anatoly Chubais, Security Council Secretary Ivan Rybkin, Defence Council Secretary Yuri Baturin and the heads of the power agencies.

Yeltsin last Saturday discussed the problem of NATO expansion with FRG Federal Chancellor Helmut Kohl, but the sides were unable to overcome their differences on this question.

It has become known that primary attention will also be given to this problem at the upcoming meetings between the Russian President and French President Jacques Chirac and British Prime Minister John Major.

The NATO nations' foreign ministers at their meeting in July are going to invite some East European countries to join the North Atlantic Alliance. Presumably they will be Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic.

A number of Russian politicians in connection with the planned expansion of NATO eastwards reckon that in response to this Russia should not become involved in a new arms race.

At a time when Russia has concentrated on the solution of its own economic tasks, the European taxpayers will carry the full burden of expenditures connected with this military bloc's expansion eastwards. This viewpoint, in particular, was expressed today in conversation with journalists by Deputy of the State Duma Sergei Shakhrai. In his opinion, a realisation by the West Europeans that they "out of their own pocket pay for the growth of American influence in Europe" will become a potent argument against the idea of admitting new members to NATO.

Simultaneously Shakhrai suggested making a warning that NATO expansion actually releases Russia from some obligations under the arms reduction agreements, since in the new situation "they are becoming senseless." At issue, in particular, are the agreements on "the open skies" and "flank restrictions." In his opinion, the admission to NATO of new members will most likely make ratification by the State Duma of the Start-2 Treaty unrealistic. In response to NATO expansion Shakhrai thinks it possible to give up destroying SS-18 missiles.

However the most effective response to NATO's eastward expansion, in Shakhrai's opinion, can be the real unification of Russia and Belarus. According to him, "the unification of the two countries would meet their strategic interests, unite society, consolidate power and contribute to the growth of Russia's prestige on the international scene."

It should also be noted that the unacceptability for Russia of NATO's eastward expansion is one of the few questions on which there exists a consensus among all the branches of power, the representatives of virtually all the political parties and groups, as well as state political and military structures, a highly placed Russian Defence Ministry official told a RIA Novosti correspondent.

In his opinion, the positioning of the question of Russia's taking measures in response to the threat to its security emanating from the expansion of NATO eastward is absolutely legitimate. The range of such measures which, naturally, can and must bear a military character should necessarily include a search for new strategic allies.

The Defence Ministry official especially stressed that the intentions of the alliance declared at last year's December NATO Council session not to deploy nuclear weapons on the territory of its new members were not a legal document having a binding force, and at any moment could be disavowed. The final communique of the session also passes in silence the question of not deploying conventional troops in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe after their admission to NATO. In addition, it did not declare renunciation of the admission to the alliance of former Soviet republics and in particular the Baltic states.

Thus, noted the official, the expansion of NATO eastwards not only threatens the vital interests of Russia. It will upset the strategic military equilibrium in Europe by undermining the existing treaties on the relationship of military forces and altering the arms balance in favour of the North Atlantic Alliance. (dev/lnv)