Let's look Lavrov's and Putin's speeches:
Lavrov:
"Despite drastic worldwide changes, Western states have not stopped trying to “swim against the tide”, and continue holding dominant positions in the world, contrary to the objective processes leading to a multipolar world. This policy has had a major negative impact on the situation in Europe. After the destruction of the Berlin Wall, our Western colleagues missed a historic opportunity when they ignored Russia's proposals to jointly develop an architecture of equal and indivisible security in the Euro-Atlantic space. I’m confident that with goodwill, this problem is quite solvable, especially if we strengthen the corresponding mechanisms within the OSCE and make it a truly international organisation with strong authority. Instead, we saw successive waves of NATO's eastward expansion, with NATO infrastructure being moved closer to the Russian border."
The West "missed" an opportunity for a framework of European security and instead expanded NATO. "Instead," is exclusive, it's either/or. You either get one, European security, or you get the other, NATO; you don't get NATO and security.
Putin:
"The Cold War ended, but it did not end with the signing of a peace treaty with clear and transparent agreements respecting existing rules or creating new rules and standards. This created the impression that the so-called 'victors' in the Cold War had decided to pressure events and reshape the world to suit their own needs and interests. If the existing system of international relations, international law and the checks and balances in place got in the way of these aims, this system was declared worthless, outdated and in need of immediate demolition."
It seems to me those two passages are pretty consistent! Putin's statement that there was no peace treaty ending the Cold War is pretty ominous: If there is no peace treaty there is no peace! The war continues by other means. As Lavrov did, Putin distinguishes NATO from international law. The NATO agreements are not international law they are merely America's decision to reshape the world.
Since the West did not adopt Medvedev's "European Security Treaty" there is no European peace treaty. And since Russia is not a party to the NATO agreements and is not a NATO member Russia does not recognize NATO.
Lavrov:
"Despite drastic worldwide changes, Western states have not stopped trying to “swim against the tide”, and continue holding dominant positions in the world, contrary to the objective processes leading to a multipolar world. This policy has had a major negative impact on the situation in Europe. After the destruction of the Berlin Wall, our Western colleagues missed a historic opportunity when they ignored Russia's proposals to jointly develop an architecture of equal and indivisible security in the Euro-Atlantic space. I’m confident that with goodwill, this problem is quite solvable, especially if we strengthen the corresponding mechanisms within the OSCE and make it a truly international organisation with strong authority. Instead, we saw successive waves of NATO's eastward expansion, with NATO infrastructure being moved closer to the Russian border."
The West "missed" an opportunity for a framework of European security and instead expanded NATO. "Instead," is exclusive, it's either/or. You either get one, European security, or you get the other, NATO; you don't get NATO and security.
Putin:
"The Cold War ended, but it did not end with the signing of a peace treaty with clear and transparent agreements respecting existing rules or creating new rules and standards. This created the impression that the so-called 'victors' in the Cold War had decided to pressure events and reshape the world to suit their own needs and interests. If the existing system of international relations, international law and the checks and balances in place got in the way of these aims, this system was declared worthless, outdated and in need of immediate demolition."
It seems to me those two passages are pretty consistent! Putin's statement that there was no peace treaty ending the Cold War is pretty ominous: If there is no peace treaty there is no peace! The war continues by other means. As Lavrov did, Putin distinguishes NATO from international law. The NATO agreements are not international law they are merely America's decision to reshape the world.
Since the West did not adopt Medvedev's "European Security Treaty" there is no European peace treaty. And since Russia is not a party to the NATO agreements and is not a NATO member Russia does not recognize NATO.
