THE new US Secretary of State, Ms Madeleine Albright, will fly into a storm when she arrives in Moscow later this week.
Ms Albright intends trying to persuade Russia to accept a deal on the eastward expansion of NATO during talks there on Thursday and Friday. The communist leader, Mr Gennady Zyuganov, says he will use his majority in parliament to block the Start-2 strategic arms treaty while the ultra-nationalist, Mr Vladimir Zhirinovsky, not to be outdone, has suggested a "preventive nuclear strike", to show the Americans what's what.
One expects and indeed hopes that Mr Zhirinovsky's option will not be used but it now seems certain that the idea of an early ratification of the Start-2 treaty is out of the question as long as NATO continues its eastward move. At its summit in Madrid in July, NATO is expected to admit Poland, which has a land frontier with Russia, Hungary and the Czech Republic.
A suggested legally binding treaty between Russia and NATO, as well as a French proposal for a five power summit on the issue, have been rejected by the US in decisions seen here as moves away from the idea of NATO's future "Europeanisation".
Almost every shade of political opinion in Russia opposes NATO expansion but at the weekend it was those who hold the more extreme views who held the stage.
Mr Zhirinovsky's supporters demonstrated outside the US embassy in Moscow with their leader hurling insults through a megaphone. The US was, he said, a nation of immigrants which had no culture and was intent on moving its armies to the borders of, Great Russia, as did Napoleon and Hitler.
Mr Zyuganov's statements carried more weight. He does control a majority in the Duma while Mr Zhirinovsky does not, fortunately, have a finger on the nuclear button. "The opposition bloc warns the Russian political leadership that no bargaining or concessions are appropriate in this case," Mr Zyuganov said.
"In the event of an attempt to implement this idea, the Communist faction, the Agrarian group of deputies and the Popular Rule group will have to block the ratification of the Start-2 treaty and revise similar agreements concluded between the United States and the USSR and, later, Russia, starting from the end of the 1980s," his statement said.
Ms Albright's Russian visit is part of her first "grand tour", a whistle stop round of nine countries in 11 days. It also include Italy, France, Belgium Britain, China and South Korea.
After meetings yesterday with the Italian Prime Minister, Mr Romano Prodi, and the Foreign Minister, Mr Lamberto Dini, Ms Albright acknowledged "we covered some issues on which we did not have total agreement", including Iran, Iraq, Libya and Cuba.
The Italian politicians, especially Mr Dini, took issue with controversial US anti Cuba legislation and explained the role the Italian telecommunications firm Stet is playing on Cuba.
However, US officials said the meeting reached "broad agreement" on NATO expansion plans, Turkey and keeping the alliance's southern military command in American hands. The two governments agreed the European Union must make efforts to link Turkey closely to the west.
