Kalachev D.N. The expansion of NATO's influence: the consequences and challenges for Russia's national security

Abstract: The article is dedicated to the study of NATO's eastward expansion. The author analyzes the history of the issue, stressing the legal obligations taken up by NATO, which have been violated over the course of several waves of expansion of the Alliance in the late 1990s and 2000s. The author argues that, despite the official statements, the policy of expansion is directed against the interests of Russia, and that NATO-centrism is a systemic defect in the European security system. The author emphasizes that full and effective cooperation between the parties can be resumed only on the basis of equality and within the framework of international law on the basis of legally binding intergovernmental agreements. The methodological basis of the study includes the systemic, structural-functional, comparative-historical, comparative-political, geo-political, cultural and civilizational approaches, methods of analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction, modeling, observation. Cooperating on extensive list of security issues, NATO and Russia will inevitably have to face the sharper corners concerning national security of Russia. Among those issues is NATO'sexpansion, as well as the problem of adapting the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe, the problem of US missile defense system placement in Europe, and the status of various territories (Kosovo, Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Crimea). In this article the author considers the problem of NATO expansion.

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