NATO's Eastward Expansion

Abstract

At the end of 1991 Russia found itself—one might say, overnight—in a very precarious strategic situation: it lost the first strategic echelon of its armed forces1—what had been its most powerful and combat-ready army, with enormous mobilizable reserves. Left without allies, Russia finally found itself within its mid-seventeenth-century borders. (Just think: the Moscow Military District became the Western border district!) All this followed from the disintegration of the USSR. But, as we know, troubles do not come singly. Three years later, Russia's situation became still more complicated; NATO was preparing to absorb the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the Baltic region and in this way to bring its military infrastructure closer to Russia's Western borders.