Yeltsin swallows pride for Russia's future

It was an historic moment in Paris Tuesday when the leaders of the Western military alliance and Russian President Boris Yeltsin signed a treaty on their new security relationship. In an unprecedented gesture of goodwill to a former enemy, NATO, Yeltsin unexpectedly announced that nuclear warheads would be removed from missiles facing NATO member states.

This gesture no doubt cemented further the relationship between NATO leaders and Yeltsin, and probably multiplied the Russian president's chances of obtaining more Western financial aid and investment to rebuild his flagging, if not shattered, economy. But how well Yeltsin's gesture will be received in Moscow, particularly among his political opponents and the military, is not difficult to surmise.

Already, Yeltsin has been harshly criticized for having surrendered Russia to the West. His latest critic is former security chief Alexander Lebed, sacked by Yeltsin and still seeking political revenge. The treaty has to go to the Russian parliament for ratification. Parliament is dominated by former communists and hardliners who have no love for Boris Yeltsin.

The question to ask is whether Yeltsin or Russia itself had the power to stop the eastward expansion of NATO, when even some of its former allies, freed from the Soviet yoke, were intent on joining the Western alliance. Russia has neither the military nor the economic power to short-circuit such a move. Equally, Russia needs Western economic help.

However much it hurts Russian pride -- and the Russians are a proud people -- world history dealt Russia a blow when the Soviet Union collapsed. It has now to rebuild the country. To do that, it has become necessary for it to swallow its pride. Perhaps it is better to do that now and recover than end up a third-rate nation without any power to influence world affairs.

-- The Hong Kong Standard