SENIOR RUSSIAN MP SAYS NATO’S FURTHER EXPANSION INEXPEDIENT

RIA Novosti, Moscow, in Russian
19 Sep 06

Moscow, 19 September: The head of the State Duma international affairs
committee, Konstantin Kosachev, does not consider it necessary for NATO
to expand in order to oppose new challenges and urges the alliance to
"rid" the process of addressing this issue of mercenary considerations.

"Russia is a member of the Collective Security Treaty Organization
[CSTO] and at the same time it cooperates with NATO closely, and I do
not see any contradiction here. NATO is not perceived as an enemy,
as an adversary," he said replying to the question on how Russia
perceives cooperation between Armenia, which is a CSTO member state,
and the North Atlantic Treaty organization.

"When we say that we cannot agree to NATO’s further expansion we view
this issue exclusively in a practical dimension. We do not see any
sense in this from the point of view of the global problems faced by
the humanity," the Russian deputy said.

According to Kosachev, it is difficult to understand "how Georgia’s
possible entry to NATO could help solve the problems of nuclear
nonproliferation or international terrorism".

"In countering these problems, NATO has proved to be an absolutely
inefficient organization. It is enough to look at what is happening
in Afghanistan today," Kosachev said and added that, in his opinion,
this is precisely why Russia objects to the further expansion of
the alliance.

"Ukraine’s possible entry to NATO, ignoring the opinion of the
Ukrainian people, would result in the disruption of absolutely unique
cooperation ties between the military-industrial complexes of Russia
and Ukraine. Neither Russia nor Ukraine needs this," the deputy said.

He also pointed out that Armenia had not yet discussed its possible
membership of the North Atlantic Treaty alliance.

"But I am convinced that this hypothetical project does not meet
either the interests of Armenia or the interests of Russian-Armenian
relations," Kosachev said.

He pointed out that Russia’s appeal to NATO "boils down to the fact
that this situation should be rid of political mercenary considerations
and that it should be looked at from the point of view of expediency".