Russia’s updated military doctrine mentions the “desire of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to provide its force potential with global functions, the implementation of which goes against international law, to bring the military infrastructure of the NATO member countries to the borders of the Russian Federation, including through the means of expanding the bloc.”

In the West, and especially in NATO circles, this doctrinal thesis was received cautiously, and even with some resentment. The present realities, however, speak for the legitimacy of the document.

February 18 marked the 58th anniversary of NATO’s first expansion (initially the military bloc had just six member countries), when Greece and Turkey joined the Alliance in 1952. This event heralded in an amendment to the North Atlantic Treaty, as now documented in Article 6, which reads: “For the purposes of Article 5, an armed attack on one or more of the Parties is deemed to include an armed attack: on the territory of any of the Parties in Europe or North America…on the territory of Turkey or on the islands under the jurisdiction of any of the Parties in the North Atlantic area north of the Tropic of Cancer…”

This amendment was made simply due to the fact that Turkey is not a European state. Moreover, Article 10 of the North Atlantic Treaty, according to which only European countries may be members of NATO, contradicts Turkey’s membership in the military coalition.

Turkey’s accession into NATO contradicted Article 10 of the North Atlantic Treaty, which strictly restricts the geographical borders of the Alliance.

As for Ukraine, according to sociological surveys, the majority of its population is against the country’s membership in NATO. Nevertheless, according to Mr. Rasmussen, the Alliance has long made a decision that Ukraine will become its member. And that is democracy according to NATO. The people may desire what they may, but decisions will be made in the highest NATO structures, and it is not exactly clear in whose interests.

Clearly, the acceptance of Ukraine into the Alliance is not at all dictated by the desire to spread democracy. The eastward expansion of NATO has already provided the Alliance an ability, with the use of conventional weapons, to make tactical air strikes on Russia’s governmental and military centers, and well as its strategic nuclear forces. With Ukraine’s accession into NATO, which the United States is making significant efforts toward achieving, these abilities will become even greater. For example, Russia’s strategic air base, near the city of Saratov, is located just 600-800 kilometers away from Ukraine’s airports.

The adoption of new states into the Alliance does not so much resemble an expansion of the democratic space in Europe, as an actual encirclement of Russia by the new NATO members, who are ready to comply with any demand made by the leadership of the Alliance. One only needs to consider the secret CIA prisons in Lithuania as proof of that statement.

Read the full story here.

Read Der Spiegel’s piece on inviting Russia to join NATO here.