RUSSIA'S Deputy Foreign Minister has called on the Irish EU Presidency to respond to Russia's needs by encouraging the Union to further open its market to Russian goods.
Interviewed in Dublin yesterday, Mr Sergei Krylov also strongly restated his government's opposition to the eastward expansion of Nato. He said that Nato could give security guarantees to states such as Poland, the Czech Republic and others close to the Russian frontier, but allowing them join would mean Nato troops and nuclear weapons could be deployed on Russia's border.
At the time the Warsaw Pact was dissolved, he said, Russia" was assured that there was no question of the enlargement of Nato to include the new democracies of central Europe. "That was a strong influence on the decision to withdraw Russian forces from those countries and the reunification of Germany. We trusted each other."
But now, he said, the US Secretary of State, Mr Warren Christopher, and the German Foreign Minister were saying that any east European countries that wanted to join Nato could become full members. This could be followed by the deployment of Nato troops and nuclear weapons on Russia's borders, a development completely unacceptable to Russia.
Despite Russia's hostility to a Nato expansion eastwards, it had no problem in joining the Nato sponsored Partnership for Peace programme. "Partnership for Peace was invented as a frame work for co operation with the goal of Nato and non Nato countries becoming closer to each other", he said. "Russia signed this because it is better to know each other than to look at each other with mistrust."
He said he would like to see the Irish Government press other EU states to ratify the treaty of partnership between the EU and Russia. This was signed in Greece two years ago but had still not been ratified by all EU members.
During the Irish Presidency of the EU, he continued, the Government should also examine why his country is still treated as a state with a centralised economy rather than a market economy.
Asked about the image of President Yeltsin sometimes portrayed abroad as a man in poor health with a drink problem, he suggested that this was an invention of the mass media. "Journalists try to portray policy makers in unusual situations," he said. "If you watch the President on television during this election campaign you will see he is really in good form, he is very active, very dynamic, and practically the same as he was five years ago."