The leader of the Yabloko Association Grigory Yavlinsky said that Russia has nothing against the expansion of the European Union and even welcomes the advancement of the European Union to its borders. Moreover, Moscow is ready to effective cooperation with the EU, for example, regarding Kaliningrad. This was clearly stated in the Memorandum disseminated by Yavlinsky to the Tripartite Commission conference in London (a non-governmental forum uniting famous politicians and businessmen) on March 11, 2001.

Grigory Yavlinsky also proposed not “pushing forward” the expansion process of NATO in a situation, where many important international problems remain unsolved. According to Yavlinsky, the advancement of the military bloc to Russia’s borders is not in “our interests”. Yavlinsky also noted that NATO’s aggression in Yugoslavia provided a bright illustration why Russia became concerned about this issue, which turned out to be “inefficient and dubious from the political point of view.”

Based on the RIA-Novosti reports.

See also:

Grigory Yavlinsky thinks that Vladimir Putin's words about the prospects of cooperation with NATO will lead to free broadening of the alliance to the East, March 12, 2000

The U.S.-Russian divide
By Vladimir Lukin - vice chairman of the Russian State Duma and former Russian ambassador to the United States. May 31, 2000