|
Deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation and the leader of the
opposition party YABLOKO Grigory Yavlinsky forecasts that after
Lithuania enters NATO relationships between Russia and Lithuania will
improve.
"We observed this in Russia when Poland was invited into the alliance.
Our mutual relationships only improved ," said Grigory Yavlinsky during
his stay in Vilnius on Saturday. In Vilnius Yavlinsky participated in
the international conference discussing the issues concerning
implementation of the "A Broader Europe" initiative.
On November 21, 2002, at the NATO summit in Prague, Lithuania together
with six other countries from Eastern and Central Europe was invited to
begin negotiations on entering this bloc. Poland, Czech Republic and
Hungary were invited into NATO in 1997 and became fully-fledged members
of the alliance in 1999.
Yavlinsky also noted that it was not very pleasant for Russia that a
military organisation had been approaching its borders, however, he
expressed his hope that "NATO expansion will eliminate the old
complexes", including psychological and other complexes.
At present Russian leadership is not categorically opposed to NATO
expansion onthe territory of the Baltic states, as it was several years
ago, however, it continues to consider this process a mistake.
In an interview to the BSN Yavlinsky noted that the change of Russia's
position towards NATO expansion is related to the fact that RF no longer
considers the West and the North Atlantic Alliance as an enemy.
Touching upon relations between Russia and the European Union Yavlinsky
drew the attention of the journalists to the insecurity of Russia's
Eastern borders.
He also noted that if Europe did not pay attention to this problem,
terrorists might start creating their organisations on Russia's
territory. According to Yavlinsky, the settlement of terrorists in
Russia, which has weapons, toxic chemicals and huge nuclear arsenals
"may become a huge problem for Europe."
"The European politicians should not hide their heads in the sand like
ostriches, but resolve this large and costly problem," stressed
Yavlinsky.
"European border ends not by Belarus, they go far further," added
Yavlinsky.
See also:
Russia and NATO
| 