MOSCOW. Nov 21 (Interfax-AVN) - Leader of the Russian Communist Party and the Duma communist faction Gennady Zyuganov thinks that NATO's enlargement will be the most serious military threat to Russia since Nazi Germany's attack on the former Soviet Union.
Zyuganov made this statement in a letter to President Vladimir Putin. The press service of the Duma communist faction released the letter's text on Thursday.
Seven countries - Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Romania and Bulgaria - were only invited to join NATO in 2004 at the current Prague summit of the North Atlantic Alliance, Zyuganov noted. The actual process will take plenty of time since the decision needs to be ratified by parliaments of NATO members and candidate countries. "Our country could try to prevent NATO enlargement during this period," Zyuganov said.
"Russia has weighty economic, political and other means to motivate the leaders of candidate countries to give more serious consideration to the consequences of their entry into NATO. First and foremost, Russia's state will is most important," Zyuganov said.
"At the same time, there is an idea that the Russian administration actually encourages NATO enlargement and contributes to involvement in the Alliance even among neutral states, such as Finland, Sweden and Austria," Zyuganov said.
"It is well known that the overwhelming majority of terrorist groups in the world (including those in Chechnya) are formed by or under control of the secret services of the United States and other NATO member countries. Therefore, statements claiming that cooperation with an enlarged NATO in the anti-terrorist coalition is nearly a benefit for Russia sound absolutely unacceptable," Zyuganov said.
The fact that the Alliance's armed forces are moving closer to Russia's boundaries and amass in Central Asian, Baltic and Transcaucasian countries shows that "the possibility of NATO intervention with Russia continues to grow," Zyuganov said.
The Communist Party leader asked the chief of state, who is also the supreme commander-in-chief, to say what he was planning to do to protect Russia from the military threat posed by NATO's enlargement towards Russia's borders. "The people have an inalienable right to obtain full information about the nearing threat. June 1941 must never be repeated," Zyuganov concluded.