NATO’s Hopes for Russia Have Turned to Dismay -- Steven Erlanger, NYT
LONDON — The NATO summit meeting last week in Wales was dominated by Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine and annexation of Crimea.
The rift with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia was an extraordinary contrast to the last NATO summit in Britain, in 1990. A year after the Berlin Wall fell, NATO issued the London Declaration, asserting that “Europe has entered a new, promising era.” Eastern Europe is liberating itself, the declaration said. “The Soviet Union has embarked on the long journey toward a free society. The walls that once confined people and ideas are collapsing,” and those people “are choosing a Europe whole and free.”
The hopes expressed in that declaration 24 years ago seem so much dust today, and among many Russia watchers, there is considerable sadness.
Read more ....
My Comment: When it cones to foreign policy and international alliances .... I have always said that Russia has, is, and will be pursuing goals and policies based on their own priorities .... not on what an alliance may dictate .... and definitely not from NATO. Will there come a day when Russia acts in concert with some greater alliance ... maybe .... but for now Russia is running it's own independent course ... it is time for Russia watchers from the West to accept this reality.
2 comments:
Is there any evidence that Putin has designs on NATO members like Estonia? If not this all seems overblown.
I do not know about Putin, but I do know that in Estonia and Latvia many Russians are bitter with how they are being treated, and it is from them that they might provoke an incident that would force Putin to respond. Putin has to be blunt and say no .... that he will respect the territorial integrity of the Baltic states .... but he has not .... and that in itself is telling.
Post a Comment