Kremlin Reiterates Opposition To Would-Be NATO Expansion
6 January 1997

MOSCOW, Jan 6 (Interfax) - A conference of the top Russian leaders in the Kremlin Monday reiterated Russia's opposition to NATO plans to expand eastward, the presidential press service told Interfax.

Russian President *Boris Yeltsin* presided over the conference, also attended by Prime Minister *Viktor Chernomyrdin*, Head of the Presidential Administration *Anatoly Chubais*, Security Council Secretary Ivan Rybkin, Defense Minister Igor Rodionov, Foreign Intelligence Service Director Vladimir Trubnikov, Defense Council Secretary Yuri Baturin and presidential advisor Dmitry Ryurikov.

Yeltsin instructed those present to develop a plan of action to implement Russia's position on this issue. He empowered the Russian Foreign Ministry to coordinate activities in this area.

*** Speaking on this conference at a Kremlin briefing Monday, Presidential Press Secretary Sergei Yastrzhembsky underlined that there were no differences over the NATO plans to expand eastward.

"At the same time, one should not think that Russia sees NATO as an enemy, or that NATO sees one in Russia," Yastrzhembsky said. "We are talking about NATO expansion eastward. Russia opposes not NATO itself, but its expansion eastward. These are two different things," he explained. "NATO should not be demonized," he added.

Russia is working on the financial aspects of possible "adequate steps" to be taken if NATO does expand eastward, Yastrzhembsky answered one of the questions.

Yastrzhembsky denied the existence of plans to create a bloc between Russia and Belarus as a counterbalance to NATO expansion eastward.

The concept of a multipolar world still prevails, Yastrzhembsky said. At the same time, "this idea does not reject special relations between Russia and Belarus, including in the military area," he said. The two countries' positions on NATO plans to expand eastward coincide, he said.

On Russian-German talks on proposed NATO expansion on January 4, Yastrzhembsky said it should be regarded as an achievement that both Russian President Boris Yeltsin and German Chancellor Helmut Kohl admitted this issue was that of the starting year.

After the Kremlin conference, Yeltsin held a brief working meeting with Chernomyrdin to consider the economic situation in Russia and payment of delayed pensions, Yastrzhembsky said.