RUSSIA SET TO COUNTER NATO'S EXPANSION
(Rossiiskiye Vesti, January 9. In full.)
Boris Yeltsin Orders Russian Foreign Ministry and Other
Concerned Departments to Prepare the Appropriate Plans

Yuri NIKOLAYEV

President Boris Yeltsin of the Russian Federation continued to attach priority to foreign-policy issues during the first days of 1997, negotiating with German Chancellor Helmut Kohl on January 4. Yeltsin also held an important 90-minute conference in the Kremlin January 6. That conference reaffirmed Russia's unequivocally negative stand concerning NATO's projected eastward expansion.

Yeltsin's close attention to international affairs, the Russia-NATO relationship, first and foremost, is quite understandable. The thing is that NATO plans to hold its Madrid session early in July. That session has some far-reaching intentions, that is to draw up the list of prospective candidates for the NATO-expansion program.

What does this signify? Why do such plans cause concern both in Russia and among impressive segments of the world public? You see, the Madrid summit can lead to sinister consequences (as regards Europe). In a nutshell, it could serve to demolish the current regional balance, which has been achieved through great efforts. Besides, NATO would approach Russian borders, eventually damaging our geopolitical and national interests in the field of security.

Those advocating the admission of new NATO members keep referring to partner-like relations with Moscow, saying that one should not worry about anything. However, why does NATO have to build up its military presence along its partner's borders at a time when it apparently takes such partnership rather seriously? Does this imply that Russia is not to be trusted?

This approach doesn't make any sense at all.

I don't want to burden our readers with excessive statistics. Still the military estimate that the admission of the first three candidates, e.g. Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary, would provide NATO with an additional 731 fighter-bombers, more than 3,400 tanks, nearly 290 airfields, numerous highways and railroads, pipelines, depots, testing ranges, etc. Therefore one would find it hard to talk about any balance of forces whatsoever.

At the same time, NATO openly warns Russia that this country would isolate itself if it continues to stick to its "die-hard" positions. Some of our political analysts, whose number is really small, have already swallowed this "bait". In real life, though, Russian society unanimously rejects NATO plans. This seems to be a rather rare occurrence, especially if we take our society's current state into account. All Russian government branches agree that any advance toward Russia's borders is seen as something unacceptable.

President Boris Yeltsin has repeatedly confirmed Russia's outright negative stand on NATO's eastward expansion. Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin says that Russia's position on this issue is unshakable. The State Duma's Vice-Speaker Mikhail Gutseriyev believes that the expansion of NATO is something unacceptable. The President, the Cabinet and the Parliament's absolute majority are completely united on this issue.

It ought to be mentioned in this connection that we don't regard NATO as our adversary. However, we don't want to reconcile ourselves with that bloc's eastward expansion. In the meantime some people are almost laughing at Russia's statements about its readiness to take adequate action (unless NATO heeds its opinion). Such people think that Moscow can do nothing but make empty-worded statements.

President Boris Yeltsin's resolute and energetic moves completely eliminate such a prospect. Yeltsin has ordered to elaborate the relevant Russian action program and to find acceptable options pertaining to interaction between Russia and NATO. Speaking about adequate measures, I'd like to stress that such measures are highly undesirable. The concerned parties should strike a deal instead. A series of meetings between Boris Yeltsin and Western leaders would be expected to accomplish this objective. Still the President's order concerning the elaboration of adequate Russian counter-measures (in case NATO admits new members) doesn't seem to be a sheer coincidence. Life itself continues to prove that Yeltsin is right. Talking to each other over the phone this past Tuesday, Helmut Kohl and US President Bill Clinton agreed that the Brussels NATO-expansion timeframe had to be fulfilled. It seems that NATO bigwigs are in a hurry.

But where are they rushing? Deputy Russian Foreign Minister Nikolai Afanasyevsky has said some time ago that Russia is being told that the NATO-expansion issue has already been resolved, and that the train has already left the station. But the thing is that no one can say anything about that train's purpose and where such a train is headed.