MOSCOW - The US Secretary of State, Ms Madeleine Albright, is expected to present a package designed to soften the blow of NATO's eastward expansion when she meets President Yeltsin today for talks which are regarded as crucial in the preparations for the Russo-American summit in Helsinki next month, writes Seam us Martin.
While the Kremlin admits it cannot stop NATO's enlargement towards Russia's borders, the Atlantic Alliance is keen to ensure that its new role in eastern Europe does not create new lines of division in Europe.
Ms Albright is expected to make a number of offers in an attempt to lighten the burden for Russia. First, she will propose a joint Russian-NATO brigade for European peacekeeping. This idea, however, could cause some difficulties in that she appears to have announced it to NATO foreign ministers, and to the international media, before officially informing the Russians.
Major changes to the Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) treaty, which Russia regards as a cold-war relic, could also help to assuage the Kremlin's fears but major stumbling blocks remain.
Yesterday Ms Albright held talks with Russia's prime minister, Mr Viktor Chernomyrdin, and the Foreign Minister, Mr Yevgeny Primakov, who in the American view is more strongly opposed to NATO expansion than any other member of the Russian administration.