Home » The impossible dialogue between Russia and NATO – Pierre Haski

The impossible dialogue between Russia and NATO – Pierre Haski

by admin

January 12, 2022 9:41 am

To understand what is happening in Russia it is worth dwelling on a statement by the head of Russian diplomacy Sergei Lavrov which has aroused a heated reaction in Central and Eastern Europe. Lavrov he ruled that “NATO has become an ideological project intended to recover the orphans of the collapse of the Warsaw Pact and the Soviet Union”.

The word that caused a sensation is “orphans”. For Moscow, therefore, Poland, Hungary or Ukraine are children who have lost their parents. “Dear Mr. Lavrov, we are not the orphans of those who occupied us in the past. We are a country free to choose its own future “, he answered a Slovak MEP on Twitter.

This exchange is significant in the attitude of Putin’s Russia, which continues to observe Europe through the eyes of the USSR without, however, having a communist ideological approach. Moscow believes that the entire period following the end of the USSR, thirty years ago, counts for nothing, and that Russia retains the right to control its old zone of influence. This is the meaning of the negotiations that started on January 10 in Geneva between the Russians and the Americans, so far without results. The negotiations will continue on January 12 in Brussels in the meeting between Russia and NATO, the military alliance led by Washington.

What is there to negotiate? This is the crucial question. The head of the Russian delegation in Geneva, Sergej Riabkov, declared that “it is imperative that Ukraine can never, under any circumstances, join NATO”.

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Vladimir Putin is convinced that the time is ripe to change the balance of power

Moscow also presented two draft treaties to the Americans, focused on granting the “security guarantees” demanded by Putin. But the treaties go far beyond the question of Ukraine. A clause, for example, prohibits sending troops and war material in addition to those already present on May 27, 1997. Why exactly this date? Because it is the day when Russia and NATO signed an agreement for a dialogue… which never led to anything.

However, a country like Poland, admitted to NATO in 1999, would see its sovereignty limited in retrospect if the proposed treaty were ratified. It is difficult for the Atlantic Alliance to do so, also because it would mean accepting a new division of Europe.

Why is Russia making these demands right now? Just like his Chinese friends, Vladimir Putin is convinced that the time is ripe to change the balance of power. China and Russia believe the West is weakened, with Europeans too divided and Joe Biden engrossed in domestic problems. For this Putin has decided to put pressure on Ukraine by sending a large number of soldiers, aware that no one is willing to “die for Kiev”.

What is at stake in the series of diplomatic meetings scheduled for this week lies in the possibility of saying “no” to Putin without starting a war in Ukraine that no one would want.

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The paradox is that the Russian president, by acting in this way, has given a new reason for existing to NATO, the same organization that the French president Emmanuel Macron had defined “brain dead” in an interview granted to the Economist. In the past, some, such as Vaclav Havel in 1989, dreamed of the disappearance of NATO along with the Warsaw Pact, but today no one in Europe wants to deprive themselves of protection against an increasingly threatening Russia.

So much so that France invited NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg to participate in an informal lunch between the 27 foreign and defense ministers on January 13 in Brest, a way to reassure Eastern Europeans about French intentions. . NATO can thank Putin for this invitation.

(Translation by Andrea Sparacino)

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