NATO Expansion

With the recent election of Dmitri Medvedev as the new President of the Russian Federation, talks have begun to circle around the United States' continued efforts to push for entrance into NATO for the countries of Ukraine and Georgia, two former Soviet republics and neighbors to Russia. This has grown to be a sensitive issue - especially as relations between the U.S. and Russia have grown more tense due to the U.S. interest in placing strategic missile defenses in the Ukraine. Talks surrounding the missile defense systems have led to increased tension as the Kremlin sees this as U.S. hegemony into their respective sphere of influence while the Americans proclaim this as a defensive measure aimed more towards Iran, rather than Russia.

The serious question at hand rests more on American interests in the former Soviet region and the growing hostilities between the two former rivals of the Cold War. As Russia continues to recover from the fall of the Soviet Union (after many setbacks of the 1990's - including massive blows to the economy in 1998), the problem of geo-political power-relations has been a sensitive issue between some members of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). This development, in particular, involves the nations of Ukraine and Georgia - both of which underwent dramatic changes towards more liberal, pro-Western administration in the recent years. The situation grew increasingly tense between the Russians and Georgians over the last two years with a number of questions surrounding Russian involvement in separatist movements in the break-away regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. If the issue of missile defense systems next-door weren't enough, the U.S. initiative on NATO's acceptance of both Ukraine and Georgia has strained relations even further.