< br>Joint exercises of NATO troops in the Baltics. File photoMOSCOW, May 20.The transfer of NATO weapons to the Russian borders against the background of the expansion of the alliance after the collapse of the USSR was a mistake, writes the New Yorker newspaper, citing the words of Daniel Treisman, an expert on Russia from the University of California at Los Angeles. In his opinion, the decision to accept former Soviet allies into its ranks, adopted by the North Atlantic Alliance in 1994 was a «catastrophic failure».
"The main international challenge of the 1990s was a reliable rapprochement between Russia and the Western world. The West had to establish new financial, commercial, cultural and political ties, as well as create new European security mechanisms in addition to NATO", Treisman quotes the publication.
The analyst believes that success in these endeavors could ensure security in Eastern Europe. However, this never happened, and the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland joined NATO already in 1999. «Instead, the West was mistaken in assessing Moscow's reaction to the transfer of NATO weapons to the East,» the expert concluded. Russia has repeatedly noted that the North Atlantic Alliance aimed at confrontation. Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that further expansion of the organization would not bring greater security to Europe, NATO has an aggressive character. At the same time, he noted that he does not consider the entry of Sweden and Finland into the military-political bloc an existential threat to Russia. -crop-height=»338″ data-source-sid=»» class=»lazyload» src=»data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=%22http://www.w3.org/2000/svg%22%20width=%22600%22%20height=%22338%22%3E%3C/svg%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20% 20%20%20%20%20″ data-src=»https://cdnn21.img.ria.ru/images/07e5/09/1d/1752268909_0:0:2770:1559_600x0_80_0_0_efc1ea3ea4b45eec9e3def22303ed7b5.jpg» lazy>Matvienko told about response to the accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO