NATO AND THE FORMER SOVIET UNION
Introduction
96. It is now nearly ten years since the opening
of the Berlin Wall,[194]
nine years since the first Baltic state declared independence
from the Soviet Union,[195]
Boris Yeltsin's first election as President of the Russian Republic[196]
and the reunification of Germany[197]
and nearly eight years since the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact[198]
and of the Soviet Union.[199]
97. Nonetheless, NATO's relationship with the former
Soviet Union, and in particular the Russian Federation, still
lies at the heart of its strategy to secure peace in the North
Atlantic area. It is clear that NATO and Russia are in the same
boat, rowing in the same direction, towards stability in Europe.
However, despite Russia's membership of Partnership for Peace,
this unity of purpose is far from apparent in the tone of relations
between the two. The Washington Summit, and the new Strategic
Concept, provide an opportunity for NATO to establish the formal
framework of a clear, post-Cold War relationship with its old
adversary. This task will be all the more difficult in the light
of Russia's suspension of military cooperation in response to
NATO's operations against the armed forces of the Federal Republic
of Yugoslavia. In March of this year we visited Moscow and Kyiv
to seek to get some measure of the state of opinion in Russia
and Ukraine in the run-up to the 50th Anniversary Summit, and
we seek to convey some of what we learned below.
194 9-10 November 1989 Back
195 Lithuania,
11 March 1990 Back
196 30
May 1990 Back
197 3
October 1990 Back
198 1
July 1991 Back
199 25
December 1991 Back
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