Want to join.There's not one single country whose population was against NATO in its majority but still joined.This and the fact that Russia occupied countries in its periphery,that Russian allies in SCO are dirt poor and corrupted to the bone,are facts.
The difference being that sovereign nations have sought to join NATO. No one is forcing them. Ever wonder why they seek to join NATO? "Engineered revolutions" my hiney: check any and all ex Warsaw pact country that joined and you will find no such thing.
BY the same argument, Russia wanted to join NATO too but was prevented. Not once but twice. Once in 1954 and then in the 2000s. Why?
Putin wants NATO to let Russia join
Associated Press
Published: July 18, 2001 12:00 a.m.Updated: July 18, 2001 10:45 a.m.
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MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday that his country should be allowed to join NATO or the alliance should be disbanded and replaced by a new body that includes all of Europe and Russia.
In his first major Kremlin news conference, Putin also said Russia has no plans for a joint response with China to counter U.S. moves to build a missile defense system. The prospect of a coordinated stance was raised by Putin's meetings this week with the Chinese president.
The Russian president — who in two days attends the G-8 summit in Italy gathering the leaders of the world's top economic nations — said the U.S.-led NATO alliance has outlived its usefulness, having been created during the Cold War to oppose the Soviet bloc.
"There is no more Warsaw Pact, no more Soviet Union, but NATO continues to exist and develop," he said.
"We do not see it as an enemy," he said. "We do not see a tragedy in its existence, but we also see no need for it."
NATO's expansion into Eastern Europe creates "different levels of security on the continent ... which does not correspond to today's realities and is not caused by any political or military necessity."
He called instead for the creation of a "single security and defense space in Europe," which he said could be achieved either by disbanding NATO, or by Russia joining it, or by the creation of a new body in which Russia could become an equal partner.
NATO spokesman Robert Pszczel said the current partnership between Russia and the alliance had reached a "level of maturity" that benefits both sides, even if there are disagreements.
"We have no doubt that the relationship, the partnership ... has a good, solid future based on mutual interest," he said in Brussels, Belgium.
The NATO-Russia Permanent Joint Council, created in 1997, holds regular sessions to give Russia a forum to raise issues, and the two sides are cooperating in several regions, including the Balkans.
The Kremlin gathering Wednesday was the first time Putin has allowed such a large, open press conference in Moscow, with some 500 journalists, no pre-screened questions and opportunities for follow-ups — a sign of the leader's growing confidence after 19 months in power. Putin used the opportunity to lay out a range of foreign and domestic policies.
But despite the tone which could seem anti-American at times, Putin was full of praise for his U.S. counterpart, President Bush.
"I do not share the opinion of those who say he lacks experience," Putin said, describing Bush as a warm person, pleasant to talk to and even "a little bit sentimental."
His comments on China came days after Putin signed a comprehensive friendship treaty with Chinese President Jiang Zemin, which had raised prospects for a joint stance against U.S. plans to develop a missile shield and scrap the Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty.
Both countries staunchly oppose the U.S. plans and warn it could spark a new arms race.
But Putin appeared to rule out coordinating with China. "We have enough means to respond to any changes ourselves," he said.
Putin spoke as U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell met in Italy with his Russian counterpart, Igor Ivanov, in talks dominated by the American missile defense plans.
Powell later described the two-hour meeting as "very, very friendly" and Ivanov said Russia was still open to "a constructive dialogue" despite the wedge missile defense has driven in relations.
"The success of this dialogue will, by and large, determine the strategic stability of the entire world," Ivanov said.
In a joint statement after their talks earlier this week, Jiang and Putin said the 1972 ABM treaty was a "cornerstone of strategic stability" that must be preserved.
But they did not comment on the United States' successful test of a missile interceptor on Sunday — suggesting suggests two countries do not view Washington's plans quite the same way.
In the news conference, Putin also called for peace in the Middle East, saying the current Israeli-Palestinian violence has "practically erased" past progress on finding a solution. He also spoke in favor of lifting sanctions against Iraq.
He dismissed calls to remove the body of Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin from a Red Square mausoleum, saying it could lead to civil unrest. He also praised a series of reform laws recently adopted by the parliament's lower house as a move toward "liberalization of the economy and the exclusion of unfounded state intervention."
Putin appeared at ease at the press conference, answering every question and going beyond the scheduled one-hour length.
Previously, Putin had confined his interviews mostly to carefully managed sessions where his staff tried to screen most questions, or to meetings with small groups of reporters where follow-up questions were frowned upon.
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/853851/Putin-wants-NATO-to-let-Russia-join.html
Fact: Russia Pitched the Idea of Joining NATO in 1954
Dave Majumdar
December 14, 2016
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As strange as it seems, in 1954 when the United States and the Soviet Union were settling into a pattern of Cold War hostilities, the Kremlin actually proposed to join the NATO alliance on March 31 of that year.
The Soviets made the pitch for NATO membership after the Kremlin’s proposal for a pan-European collective security treaty at the Berlin Conference of Foreign Ministers in February 1954 was shot down by Western powers. While the Soviets expected to be rejected—and they were—Moscow considered it to be a win-win proposition.
“Most likely, the organizers of the North Atlantic bloc will react negatively to this step of the Soviet government and will advance many different objections. In that event the governments of the three powers will have exposed themselves, once again, as the organizers of a military bloc against other states and it would strengthen the position of social forces conducting a struggle against the formation of the European Defense Community,” Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov wrote in
a memo addressed to Georgy Malenkov—the titular head of state—and Communist Party General Secretary Nikita Khrushchev—with whom power actually rested. A copy of the document can be found
at the Wilson Center.
However, it would have served the Soviets perfectly well to see their proposal meet the approval of the United States, France and the United Kingdom. “Of course, if the statement of the Soviet government meets with a positive attitude on the part of the three western powers this would signify a great success for the Soviet Union since the USSR joining the North Atlantic Pact under certain conditions would radically change the character of the pact,” Molotov wrote. “The USSR joining the North Atlantic Pact simultaneously with the conclusion of a General European Agreement on Collective Security in Europe would also undermine plans for the creation of the European Defense Community and the remilitarization of West Germany.”
But Molotov did foresee problems in the event the Soviet Union became a NATO member. NATO would likely insist on democratic institutions while the Soviet Union considered the Westphalian concept of sovereignty sacrosanct. “If the question of the USSR joining it became a practical proposition, it would be necessary to raise the issue of all participants in the agreement undertaking a commitment (in the form of a joint declaration, for example) on the inadmissibility of interference in the internal affairs of states and respect for the principles of state independence and sovereignty,” Molotov wrote.
As Professor and Head of the School of History at University College Cork in Ireland and author of the book
Molotov: Stalin's Cold Warrior, Geoffrey Roberts—who translated the document—notes, the length of Molotov’s memo is unusual. Molotov likely knew that his proposal would be controversial in the upper echelons of the Soviet Communist Party. “It was unusual, however, for Molotov to present the Presidium with a long, discursive memorandum justifying what was being proposed. Usually, he just sent a short note enclosing the foreign ministry's proposals which were then discussed in personal conversation at the Presidium level. On this occasion Molotov evidently felt the need for an advance written justification of what was being proposed,” Roberts wrote for the
Wilson Center’s Cold War International History Project.
Thus, as strange as it might seem, it is possible that the Soviet proposal to join NATO might have been serious. Ultimately, as Roberts notes, NATO rejected the Soviet proposal. “In May 1954 the Western powers rejected the Soviet proposal to join NATO on grounds that the USSR's membership of the organization would be incompatible with its democratic and defensive aims. However, Moscow's extensive and intensive campaign for European collective security continued until the Geneva Foreign Ministers Conference of October-November 1955,” Roberts wrote.
Dave Majumdar is the defense editor for The National Interest
. You can follow him on Twitter: @davemajumdar.
Image Credit: Creative Commons.
http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/fact-russia-pitched-the-idea-joining-nato-1954-18737
