Hairy Dope wrote:
> A correspondent says that Russia's Vlad Putin may have a legitimate
> gripe about further NATO expansion.
>
> ---------------------------------
> "The Threat Mr. Putin Sees"
> Letter to the Editor
> Monday, May 12, 2008; A18
>
>
>
> I didn't find Robert Kagan persuasive when he said that what Vladimir
> Putin, now Russian's prime minister, has to fear from NATO expansion
> into Ukraine and Georgia is only democracy, not a military threat
> ["Ideology's Rude Return," op-ed, May 2]. Mr. Kagan echoed President
> Bush on the subject in writing, "NATO is less provocative and
> threatening toward Moscow today than it was in [Mikhail] Gorbachev's
> time."
>
> Both columnist and president are wrong. Mr. Putin sees the world
> around his immediate frontiers in a strategic sense of military
> options. NATO forces are in his face from Murmansk to the Baltic
> states, Romania and Turkey. Kyrgyzstan, while not in NATO, is
> certainly an American client with its large U.S. military airfield and
> staging area at Manas, near the capital. Armenia, Azerbaijan,
> Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan have pledged to the U.S. various forms of
> direct military cooperation.
>
> Think about Mr. Putin's reduced military options in backing up Russian
> policy if Ukraine and Georgia join NATO. Mr. Putin could not be
> clearer on this point: Russia will not tolerate further NATO expansion
> eastward. He has stated that to any media outlet that will listen. He
> has shown his seriousness on this point with stepped-up Cold War-style
> flights by his Tu-95 Bear bombers over our ****ps at sea and near
> Alaska and Great Britain.
>
> We risk a major confrontation by disregarding Mr. Putin's "red line"
> on this subject.
>
> JACK BROADBENT
> Grasonville, Maryland
>
>
http://www.wa****ngtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/11/AR2008051101734.html
As usual there is no information about the fact that only 30% of
Ukrainians want to
join NATO. Also, the status of Abkhazia and South Ossetia needs to be
clarified
unless NATO wants to start a war in the name of Soviet Georgia's
Stalin-created
borders.
Funny how NATO can proclaim democracy and ignore the clear majority of
Ukrainians'
wishes. NATO's behaviour establishes that it is a threat. Not just to
Russia but
to the Middle East as well.
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