The Russian news agency Interfax is reporting that European Integration Minister Giorgi Baramidze of the Republic of Georgia told reporters Monday that his country could be ready to join NATO by 2007, allowing his country to take care of its own defenses. This would lessen the sphere of influence of the Russian Federation. The agency also reported Monday that Georgia and the Ukraine are discussing alternative energy supplies for their countries.
This can be seen as a bad sign for both Russian and France. France has been very clear that New Europe is an immature child which should not be permitted into the big people’s organizations. With the former Soviet states on the ascendancy, France can only diminish. This jeopardizes the French vision of a multi-polar world France sitting square atop one of the poles.
Russia is showing her age and her past. But for a few rusty nukes and its vast oilfields, Russia also has little to offer.
