Russian President Vladimip Putin, right, shakes hands with Russian Armed Forces Chief of Staff General-Colonel Yury Baluevsky, 2nd left, during the meeting of Armed Forces chiefs.
Photo: Dmitry Azarov
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RF Military to Respond to Ukraine’s, Georgia’s Admittance to NATO
Should Georgia and Ukraine join NATO, Russia will take “military and other actions” to secure its interests close to the state frontiers, RIA Novosti reported with reference to the RF Armed Forces Chief of General Staff Yuri Baluevsky.
Russia will spare no efforts to prevent Ukraine and Georgia from joining the alliance, RF Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov pledged not long ago in the interview with Echo Moskvy Broadcaster. Should those two states be admitted to NATO, Russia’s relations with the alliance would cloud materially, the minister emphasized.
The comments of State Duma leaders are equally hawkish. Ukraine’s membership in NATO will end the cooperation of its defense and industrial complex with Russia, warned Konstantin Kosachev, chairman of the State Duma’s Foreign Committee. This scenario will cause difficulties for defense and industrial complex of Russia, but it will be a catastrophe for Ukraine, as local manufacturers will hardly find a ready market in Europe, according to Kosachev.
NATO’s recent summit in Bucharest refused to grant the MAP to Ukraine and Georgia, but the allies agreed that the former Soviet republics should become the NATO members in future. The United States and new allies, including the Baltic states, backed up their admittance, while Germany and France stepped in to oppose it.
www.kommersant.com
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