By Prensa Latina
Moscow : The possible entry of Ukraine to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, fostered by the US, threatens to cloud the relations with Russia and the bilateral cooperation program, said Russian Foreign Affairs Vice Minister Grigori Karasin Tuesday.
Karasin warned on a possible burst of a serious Russian-Ukrainian crisis in the links in a near future, pointed out that the incorporation of Kiev in NATO will bring a deep crisis, affecting the European global security negatively.
In his appearance before the Russian Lower Chamber (Duma) Karasin suggested many European countries to think on the support of the entry of Ukraine to NATO, taking the Russian opposition to such a plan into consideration.
He pointed out that if every country has the right to choose its own security system, it is extremely strange it is done against the will of the people.
More than 50 percent of the Ukrainian population deplores the country’s integration to NATO and other western organizations.
Karasin said that if the entry of Ukraine in NATO were effective, Russia would be forced to modify its defense concepts to guarantee strategic security in Europe.
One of the most noticeable discrepancies between Moscow and Brussels has to do with the NATO widening plans to the east of Europe, incorporating Ukraine and Georgia, trying to neutralize the Russian influence in the post-Soviet space, and get key positions.
Russian Duma´s Committee for the Community of Independent States vicepresident Kontantin Zatulin considered the aspirations of Ukraine break the bilateral friendship and cooperation agreement signed with Russia.
He said that the intentions of Ukrainian President Victor Yuschenko do not correspond with the spirit of the document signed in 1997 and ratified by the parties in 1999, since none of the parties should join another alliance if it affects the other country’s interests.