[from russia with love] you can keep your nato

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov says Russia is unable to influence the process of NATO enlargement, Xinhua news agency reported on Wednesday.

His statement was in response to the NATO summit in Riga, Latvia, where 26 NATO member countries have met to focus on its mission in Afghanistan and its future role. “Each country is free to decide what bloc it should be a member of,” Ivanov said. “We have no intention of joining NATO,” he added.

NATO has recognized Albania, Croatia and Macedonia as formal aspirant countries. Georgia and Ukraine also have intentions to join, but are in an earlier stage of the process. The three Baltic states Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania joined the alliance in 2004.

I'm the first to admit I’m no strategic expert but surely it would have been better for the west [read USA] not to have blocked Russia, despite it’s being difficult. Inside NATO, it would have exerted a moderating role and would have tried to eventually play a leading role. Face is very important in all this. Now, outside the alliance, Russia can do as it wishes and that may well have suited someone’s book.