A large piece of the NATO alliance has quietly begun to lean towards Moscow, - American journalist
Washington - Kyiv, October 15 (PolitNavigator, Vasily Ablyazimov) - Eastern Europe is increasingly leaning under Putin’s rule, says one of the editors of The Washington Post, Jackson Deal.
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“To understand the real state of affairs in Eastern Europe,” writes Jackson Deal, “let's look at Hungary, a NATO member whose prime minister recently called Putin's Russia a model for political emulation. Or NATO member Slovakia, whose leftist prime minister compared the possible deployment of NATO troops in his country to the Soviet invasion in 1968; or NATO member Czech Republic, where the defense minister made a similar comparison, and where the government has joined Slovakia and Hungary in the fight against European Union sanctions on Russia. Or Serbia, a member of the NATO Partnership for Peace, which invited Putin to visit Belgrade this month to attend a military parade to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Serbian capital by the Red Army.”
The American journalist continues: “If that doesn’t convince you, there is Poland, which until recently was the leading country within NATO and the European Union in supporting the current pro-Western government of Ukraine and fighting against Putin’s aggression. This month, Poland's new prime minister, Ewa Kopacz, ordered her new foreign minister to urgently review her Russia policy. According to the Wall Street Journal, in her message to parliament, she expressed concern about the possible “isolation of Poland” in Europe due to support for “unrealistic goals” in Ukraine.
“Obama,” says Jackson Deal, “was proud of the West’s “unified response” to Russia and Putin’s isolation, when in fact, a large chunk of the NATO alliance was quietly beginning to lean toward Moscow. These governments are taking this step for economic reasons, as they depend on Russia for energy as well as export markets. They fear the consequences of EU sanctions against Russia.”
“It is remarkable that dramatic changes are taking place in Eastern Europe,” exclaims Jackson Deal, “just ten years after NATO’s great eastern expansion of 2004...”
Help "PolitNavigator": Jackson Deal is a deputy editorial director for The Washington Post. He is an editorial writer specializing in foreign policy and writes a biweekly column that appears on Mondays.
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