MOSCOW/BRUSSELS: Moves by Nato and Russia to boost ties to match their common fight against terrorism may face opposition both from some European allies and Moscow’s military, analysts said on Sunday.
President Vladimir Putin seems to have won a key concession from the United States and its allies: Nato is now mulling a proposal that could give Russia equal status with the Alliance’s 19 members in working out policies on some security issues.
The move, the focus of talks with Nato Secretary General George Robertson in Moscow last week, seems like an overdue payback for Putin, who quickly threw his weight behind the US campaign in Afghanistan after the September 11 airliner attacks.
On the face of it, this will help Putin handle criticism by his hawks that he is giving away too much to the United States.
Crucially, it will allow him to tell his political and military elites that, although he cannot stop Nato enlarging eastwards, he has now won a real voice inside the Nato camp.
But both Russian analysts and Western diplomats in Brussels said talk of radically upgraded cooperation between the two former Cold War foes had to be treated with caution given the limited success of a first attempt at partnership in 1997.
Independent Russian defence analyst Alexander Golts said it was “a first step” whose importance should not be exaggerated.
Describing the new moves as “opportunistic”, he said the huge gulf between thinking in the armed forces of the two sides meant that “sooner or later we are doomed to new conflicts”.
CONCERN AMONG Nato ALLIES: In Brussels, Western officials said a British proposal for a new body that would give Russia equal rights in discussion of certain security matters with the allies had generated some concern among other alliance members, including France.
Some allies were upset by the speed of events. “The words ‘human rights’ do not even seem to come up in dialogue with Russia anymore. —Reuters
