‘If US Leaves NATO, Bloc Could Become More Anti-Russian,’ Moscow Analyst Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Dec. 10 – Moscow has long sought to break apart the alliance between the United States and Europe that rests on the existence of the NATO alliance; but given the changes in US policy under the Trump Administration, one Moscow analyst is warning that the exit of the US from NATO could leave the bloc more anti-Russian than it is now.

            Among them is Vasiliy Koltashov, the head of the Center for Political-Economic Research at the Institute of the New Society, who says with the US out, the remaining Europeans may feel less constrained from launching a war against Moscow (absatz.media/news/144204-politolog-obuyasnil-pochemu-vyhod-ssha-iz-nato-priblizit-vojnu-alyansa-s-rossiej).  

            The Moscow analyst says that he doesn’t believe that the Americans are really about to leave NATO. But unlike most Russian analysts, he suggests that their continuing presence there may be something that will benefit the Russian Federation rather than work against it as has long been assumed in Russian thinking.

            If Moscow were to accept Koltashov’s argument, Washington might feel leaving NATO would win it fewer points in the Russian capital and not view such a move as a good negotiating ploy in talks with Putin. And that in turn could lead the Trump Administration to slow down its current efforts to disentangle the US from Europe by reducing the American role in NATO.