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MOSCOW-Russian president-elect Dmitry Medvedev maintained pressure on NATO on Tuesday not to grant membership to Ukraine and Georgia, saying a week before an alliance summit that it would undermine European security.NATO leaders meeting in Bucharest from April 2-4 are expected to consider requests by the two former Soviet republics' pro-Western leaders to put their countries on the path to membership."We are not happy about the situation around Georgia and Ukraine," Medvedev told the Financial Times in an interview."We consider that it is extremely troublesome for the existing structure of European security...No state can be pleased about having representatives of a military bloc to which it does not belong coming close to its borders."Ukraine and Georgia are lobbying NATO to grant them a Membership Action Plan (MAP), which is seen as the first step towards joining the alliance. Washington has said it backs their bid, but some NATO members in Europe are cool on the idea.Russian President Vladimir Putin, who opposes their accession bids, has accepted an invitation to go to the summit, which President George W. Bush will attend.If he goes, Putin will be the first Russian president to attend a NATO summit for six years. But Russian political analysts say he may cancel the trip if it appears NATO members will use the summit to award MAP status to Georgia or Ukraine.In Brussels, a spokesman for NATO said the alliance was aware of Russia's concerns about expansion. "We are open as an alliance to discussing them in an open manner," said spokesman James Appathurai.To read more go to:
As in te days of Noah.....
