Упрощенная HTML-версия
Armen Oganesyan
, Editor-in-Chief of Inter-
national Affairs, advisor to the RF Minister of
Foreign Affairs:
Ahead of the Russian-NATO summit that
took place in Lisbon at the end of last year,
some observers were full of some naïve op-
timism, expecting a significant turnaround
to emerge in our relations with NATO.
However, in my opinion, it did not happen;
the expectations were not fulfilled, which became especially obvious after the well-
known remarks on the missile defense issue. That said, the documents of the Lisbon
Summit for the first time recorded a provision about the need for strategic partnership
with Russia. What are the prospects for Russia-NATO coexistence or partnership?
Leonid Ivashov,
Deputy Director, Institute of Strategic Studies and Analysis:
The principal question is, what is NATO today. What threats and challenges does
NATO face at present? In any case, NATO today exists as a powerful, in fact the only
military organization with corresponding plans.
NATO's strategic concept has also been changing. The new concept makes no mention
of the area of responsibility, as was the case before (the Euro-Atlantic space). It seems
to me that NATO's main adversaries today are the Western European elites. This is
because NATO is used by the United States and global financial institutions as a tool
to exercise control over Europe.
Let's ask ourselves: What is the benefit of our rapprochement with NATO, our pres-
ence in Lisbon? I personally can see nothing positive in that for Russia.
Russia's position should be independent, not influenced by others: Stay out of any al-
liances, especially NATO.
Aleksei Pushkov,
Director, Institute for Contemporary International Studies, Diplomatic Acad-
emy, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation; author and host of the Postskriptum
show at the TVC television channel:
I generally agree with Ivashov's argumentation. I believe that in any event all of these
maneuvers are a lead-up to a problem that is disastrous to us - Russia's admission to
NATO. Generally, we lose the game completely as soon as we admit the sheer possi-
bility of Russia's joining NATO.
We cannot ignore NATO as such; we cannot pretend that NATO does not exist. We
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Russia-NATO: After the Lisbon Summit