Title: Inside the Complicated Relationship Between Russia and NATO | Time
Headings: Breaking Down the Complicated Relationship Between Russia and NATO
Breaking Down the Complicated Relationship Between Russia and NATO
After the Cold War, what happened between Russia and NATO?
So why isn’t Russia a member of NATO?
How does Russia feel about NATO today?
Is NATO still effective in 2019?
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Content: In 1991 Boris Yeltsin, the first president of the new Russian state, wrote to NATO, reiterating Gorbachev’s proposal. He echoed calls made by former Warsaw Pact countries like Hungary to join the Western alliance, and called NATO membership a “long-term political aim” of Russia. After the collapse of the Soviet Union though, NATO began to redefine its purpose. Vesko Garcevic, a former Montenegro ambassador to NATO, says the new mission became to ensure the democratization of newly post-communist republics, which the alliance considered crucial to guaranteeing a stable Europe. After joining NATO, most of the countries then became E.U. members. “ It was no longer not just about security. It was also political. That’s why the alliance has survived for so many years,” he says. In 1994, Russia officially signed up to the NATO Partnership for Peace, a program aimed at building trust between NATO and other European and former Soviet countries. President Bill Clinton described it in January 1994 as a “track that will lead to NATO membership.”