NATO is a past matter – Russian scholar

NATO has no future and today we have to re-think European security anew to switch to other forms of interaction between Russia and the EU, insists Viktor Kremyenuk, Deputy Director of the U.S. and Canada Institute.

“We are trying to pave this way while NATO is dividing Europe and Russia for various reasons,” explains Viktor Kremyenuk. “It is unlikely [for Russia] to join NATO: it is too big and is quite self-sufficient in military terms, Russia does not need NATO and its guarantees, it will be very well to do without them, but it means that for a certain period of time is going to be split into NATO members and non-NATO countries – namely Russia. That is going to create unnecessary tensions. Therefore, I think that the very decision to expand NATO was poorly thought through and not very reasonable in its timing,” he concluded.

Russia will definitely become a WTO member because “it is a more serious matter than just an economic issue.”

All recent American Presidents promised Russia to help it to become a WTO member, but since their promises never came true because of the conservative US Congress – Russia will search for different solutions and form trade zones with its partners unilaterally.

If the US Senate decides to humiliate American President Barack Obama and defeat the START nuclear arms reduction treaty, which is well balanced and serves the American interests as well as Russia’s, this would mean a great loss for Obama, since there were excessive expectations for his presidency and he failed to deliver the “change’ miracle he was expected to and now his polls are falling.