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Who ‘Lost’ Russia? An Enquiry into the Failure of the Russian-Western Partnership
By Dr Jonathan Eyal6 Apr 2009
£15.00
To purchase a copy, click here
An enlarged NATO, forced to consider how to defend its new members from possible Russian aggression, is set for an ‘unavoidable clash’ of interests with Russia transfixed by Cold War logic that still harbours ‘imperial ambitions’. In this report, Dr Eyal challenges the growing consensus that the West is responsible for missing a historic opportunity to engage Russia, by allegedly failing to appreciate the full depth of Russia’s aspirations and feelings.
‘It is simply untrue that the Russians were isolated, that their interests were not taken into account, or that the West has sought to ‘benefit’ from the collapse of the Soviet Union. The West did not rush into Eastern Europe; the former Soviet satellites rushed to the West instead, because they had nowhere else to go, and because the West represented a future which Russia did not. There was no hope – and there still is no hope – in forging a friendly relationship with Russia as long as Moscow talks in terms of spheres of influence, of zero-sum games in which countries are tallied according to which ‘camp’ they belong to', concludes Dr Eyal.
‘In a strange way – and largely because of Russia’s own actions – the Kremlin has brought upon itself the worst possible outcome: a NATO which is both enlarged, and which is now forced to consider yet again – albeit in private – how to defend its new members from possible Russian aggression.
Far from being a monumental failure, the West’s handling of Russia over the last two decades was a resounding success, because it upheld the West’s core principles – even if the result was a largely unavoidable clash with Moscow.’
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