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Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev on Thursday accused Russia's former East European allies and ex-Soviet republics of playing up the "Russian threat" to secure speedy admission into NATO.
Kozyrev said "certain forces" were keen to join NATO, especially after the strong showing by ultranationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky's party in December's parliamentary elections.
Boris Yeltsin's administration believes NATO's admission of new members from the former Soviet bloc could lead to a backlash from Russia's increasingly vocal and influential nationalists.
Kozyrev bluntly warned that admitting new members into NATO would "lead away from a single, large Europe" and boost Russia's nationalist forces.
He said "primitive economic considerations" were behind the East European and former Soviet republics' plans to join NATO, and that "certain circles confuse NATO's membership ticket with a credit card that would give (them) direct access to Western banks."
Kozyrev said any change in Europe's defense structure should be aimed at turning military machines "into instruments of stability, security and even partnership between East and West."
Russia has said it would join NATO's Partnership for Peace program, which offers limited military and security cooperation to former members of the Soviet-run Warsaw Pact as well as to the former Soviet republics. Many Eastern European countries along with the Baltic republics and Ukraine already have joined the program.
Kozyrev also mentioned the estimated 25 million Russians who were living outside Russia's borders when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, many of whom now complain of discrimination.
He said the issues of "democracy, protection of human rights and the rights of national minorities" will be the focus of his talks with U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher in Vladivostok on Monday.
Palestinian officials said Thursday that Kozyrev would visit Tunis on Friday to discuss with PLO leader Yasser Arafat a Russian proposal for a new Middle East peace conference in Madrid following the Hebron massacre of Palestinians. The suggestion for a new conference was made Wednesday by First Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov after returning from a Middle East peace tour, according to Interfax. Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin quickly rejected the idea however.
(AP, Reuters)
Kozyrev: Russia No Real Threat
11 March 1994
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