Russia’s Envoy to NATO Slams Ukraine’s Membership Bid

Russia’s permanent representative to NATO Dmitriy Rogozin has said Russia “will not move a millimetre” on the question of opening up for Ukraine and Georgia the Membership Action Plan (MAP) to join NATO. Speaking by telephone in the “Razvorot” programme on Ekho Moskvy radio on 1 April, Dmitriy Rogozin said: “we shall not move a millimetre on the question of offering the MAP to Ukraine and Georgia”.

Rogozin also noted that US President George Bush had come to Ukraine to promise NATO membership to its residents on April Fool’s Day. He said NATO membership for Ukraine was Bush’s personal ambition and voiced the opinion that leaders of European NATO members did not share this ambition.

Rogozin also said that Russia-NATO partnership would cease to exist if Russia’ views on NATO expansion were not taken into account.

Russian reaction to Ukraine’s NATO membership bid

Asked by the presenter to comment on Russia’s means of opposing Ukraine’s desire to join NATO, Rogozin said: “Firstly, we will not conduct such talks with Ukraine alone, but, first of all, with our partners in the alliance, 26 countries and first of all, the largest countries, the Americans, as well as representatives of old Europe: the French, the Germans, the Spanish, the Italians – by the way, they are not at all inclined to offer even the MAP to Ukraine or Georgia – at least today, at the current moment, apart from the Americans, of course, who very actively stand for this. Why are they doing this? Because, yes, of course, they understand that Russia has no veto right in NATO, because we are not NATO members. But they reckon with us. They understand very well that the word partnership primarily assumes mutual regard for interests in terms of security, first of all. How is it possible to tackle problems of security in Europe without Russia or against Russia? How is it possible to achieve at least some result in Afghanistan, where the whole fate of the alliance has been put on the table, without Russia’s participation? Therefore, of course, one can smash all the pots, fall out with Russia, choose not to hear our demands, that are: not to break the balance of forces and security in Europe and not to act as if one were seemingly blind, deaf and dumb or did not hear what we are saying. Of course, one can behave differently, but then I think this will be no longer a partnership and then a dramatic development of relations will start between Russia and the alliance on the whole.”

Rogozin refused to discuss Russia’s possible reaction to US support for Ukraine’s bid to join NATO. He said that MPs can afford the liberty of talking more openly, but “the country’s political leadership has other means of drawing the attention of its partners to its viewpoint, both in Washington, in Paris, in Kiev, in Berlin and so on. And we have most probably already brought our viewpoint, including our possible forms of reaction, to the attention of our partners.”

Bush’s visit to Kiev

To a question about US President George Bush’s visit to Kiev, Dmitriy Rogozin said: “I think that American analysts have calculated not just the visit’s format, but also its date – it is not accidental that he came to Kiev on 1 April to promise NATO membership to the Ukrainians.”

Asked to comment on whether Bush’s visit to Kiev is a pure PR action, Rogozin said: “No, it should probably be treated as a personal position of the US president, who believes that this question should be resolved now, while Bush is still US president. He wants to put this yet another transatlantic victory down to him, to his personal credit.”

Rogozin added that this was not the case with European leaders, some of whom have come to power recently and are not subject to internal political conjuncture and can therefore take decisions quite freely. Rogozin reiterated that he thinks that “the US president is to a large extent solving his internal problems”. He said this was understandable and that Russia was politely watching what was happening in Kiev.

Ukrainian people oppose NATO membership

Rogozin said that according to opinion polls, the Ukrainians do not want to join NATO and wondered as to how one can “drag the country into NATO, if the nation itself is against this”. He also said: “One should take into account that all sorts of tricks, phrase- mongering are going on now, for example, to the effect that offering the MAP, i.e. the Membership Action Plan to join NATO, is merely an invitation to a talk. In reality this is not true.” He added that “the MAP is a point of no return. If you become a candidate, that’s it! You should consider that after some period of time, you will be admitted to the alliance de-facto. Therefore, from this point of view, actions by [Ukrainian President Viktor] Yushchenko and his comrades from the Orange coalition look like actions against the national majority within Ukraine itself.”

Georgia’s NATO accession referendum

Rogozin also called into question the results of the referendum on joining NATO that has been held in Georgia. He said: “Well, first of all, there has been no referendum in Georgia either. What kind of a referendum is the one that is held on the territory of half the country, while the other half is not voting? It was not even suggested to the other half that it take part in this referendum. I mean Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Therefore, has Mr Saakashvili decided to join [NATO] with half of Georgia? And where will the other half go? Well, all this looks somehow not very patriotic and somehow odd.”

Originally published by Ekho Moskvy radio, Moscow, in Russian 1107 1 Apr 08.

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