NATO growth raises old fears in Russia

RIGHT across the political spectrum in Russia, opposition to NATO's expansion is widespread. President Yeltsin opposes it, his foreign minister Mr Yevgeny Primakov is resolutely against it, the communists and Russian nationalists are apoplectic at the idea of the former enemy moving up to the borders of Russia. Even the country's only liberal and truly democratic politician Mr Grigory Yavlinsky, is not keen on the idea and, last week the union of Cossack Atamans added whatever weight it has to the antiNATO argument.

Mr Yeltsin, Mr Primakov, Mr Yavlinsky, the rabid ultra nationalist Mr Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the communist leader Mr Gennady Zyuganov and the cossacks, many of whom have pledged their loyalty to the Romanov dynasty, all have one other factor in common. All of them are Russians and Russians traditionally look westward with suspicion and hostility.

They have good reason to do so. It was from the west that the invaders came through the centuries: the Lithuanians in the middle ages, the Poles in the 17th century, the Swedes under Charles XII, the French under Napoleon, the Germans under Hitler.

The current invasion has taken the form of cheap western goods which have driven Russian products out of the market place and put Russian workers on to the metaphorical dole queues. Now the threat, albeit perhaps a psychological one, comes from a military organisation whose aim was once to destroy Moscow's power.

Moscow's power is now all but destroyed and NATO's self congratulatory claim to have been the most successful supra national organisation ever known by achieving this aim without firing a single shot, naturally does not go down well in a Kremlin beset by its own problems and under siege from nationalistic and communist foes.

But to suggest as some of the well endowed organisations of the American right do, that the Russian government's antipathy to NATO expansionism is due entirely to pressure from the opposition or to Mr Primakov's personal influence as a former head of the KGB, is to oversimplify matters.

Of course Cold War attitudes remain in Russia. It is hardly surprising that a nation against which the military and economic might of the west has been ranged for such a long period finds it difficult, suddenly to embrace its former enemy as a new and trustworthy friend.

And Cold War attitudes persist, understandably but irrationally, in the west too. NATO's original role may have vanished with the collapse of European communism and Mr Yeltsin's dissolution of the Soviet Union but the mind sets engendered by this role have eroded more slowly.

NATO has sought a new role and in doing so has attempted to persuade Russia it will not be under threat by the inclusion of its former satellite states. This is not an anti Russian move, Moscow is told, it is a consolidation of European Security.

But ask the citizens of those eastern European countries eager to join the Atlantic alliance why they are so keen on membership and they will reply in unison: "to protect us from the Russians."

RUSSIAN politicians and diplomats will rightly point to this "anti Russian" aspect of NATO's attempts to find a role for itself but behind all this there is a strong distaste for what is seen as American moves into the European heartland. In private, the same politicians and diplomats will tell foreign observers that eastward moves by a newly Europeanised NATO would cause far less opposition in Russia.

Enter Jacques Chirac with his plan to hold a five power summit in April (in Paris of course) with representatives of the United States, Russia, France, Germany and Britain. A deal providing enough guarantees and concessions to Russia for it to accept expansion in time for the NATO summit in Madrid in July could then, the French argument goes, be hammered out.

For differing reasons, this plan has been opposed by the United States and by the smaller NATO countries who feel they have been squeezed out of the decision making process by their larger and more powerful allies.

It has now been agreed that the topic of NATO expansion will be aired - not between five countries in Paris - but between two, Russia and the United States, in the form of a presidential summit in Helsinki next month, Mr Yeltsin's health permitting.

In the meantime, Russia has turned up the volume on NATO. Mr Ivan Rybkin, the country's security chief, told a Moscow newspaper he felt that Russia should reintroduce a nuclear first strike policy against potential enemies. This was quickly followed by a series of backtracking statements from the Kremlin.

The next target was NATO's secretary general Mr Javier Solana whose tour of Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries other than Russia evoked a statement from Mr Yeltsin's press secretary Mr Sergei Yastrzhembsky that Mr Solana was indulging in a covert anti Moscow policy aimed at preventing further economic and political integration within the CIS.

But Mr Yastrzhembsky's statement appears to have caused more division within the CIS than Mr Solana's visit and has elicited a statement from Georgia's President and former Soviet foreign minister, Mr Eduard Shevardnadze, who told reporters: "I have met this man and spoke with him for quite a long time. I found him to be in no way anti Russian. He said absolutely nothing against Russia."

In a situation in which national sensitivities appear to be playing as important a role as geo political realities it might, in advance of the Helsinki summit, help matters if Moscow approached the matter with less sensitivity and Washington with a great deal more.

The only western leader who appears hopeful of a resolution of the problem before the NATO summit in Madrid in July is the German Chancellor, Dr Helmut Kohl. He is personally close to Mr Yeltsin and his judgment is certainly not to be mistrusted.

The three countries most favoured for membership at Madrid are Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic. Of these only Poland has a border with Russia and this is solely with the Russian Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad. The real fireworks from Moscow may come at a later date when membership for countries closer to metropolitan Russia is considered.

IT would be a great tourism draw, no doubt about it. Parents would probably flock to the Mass rock at Oakvale Woods, Stradbally, if their babies too could get the sort of name giving ceremony bestowed upon baby Fionn McDonald last week. Len, a druid, and Lea, a druidress, were surrounded by no fewer than five clan chieftains and hordes of warriors dressed in Celtic costumes as they raised a longsword in Fionn's honour.

The child was the first in Ireland since 1040 to be named in Celtic fashion, said the Laois Nationalist. Fionn, son of Declan and Christina McDonald of Athy, "has set a precedent as a similar naming will take place by Tuatha na Boinne in Drogheda".

Anyone bearing more than a passing resemblance to Lord Lucan or Princess Di should head for Castlebar on Sunday, March 16th, for the town's St Patrick's Day lookalike contest. The missing lord and the princess have been chosen because "both their ancestors have connections with Castlebar dating back to the early 1700s", said the Connaught Telegraph.

"Princess Di's roots are firmly planted in the town where a street and a park are named after her family the Spencers. Lord Lucan's connections with Castlebar are still very real where hundreds of householders (are) still paying ground rent to the Lucan estate."

The major Mayo story was the imminent television blackout due to legal action by Cablelink, which is forcing the Mayo Community TV Group to shut down their deflector systems, the Telegraph said.

"With a general election coming up, this is going to be a very hot issue," said Mr Joe Gibbons, chairman of the deflector group.

In Galway, the "big switch off" has already affected more than 5,000 families. The Connacht Tribune agreed that "the multi channel television issue looked set to become a major one in the general election".

The problems of drug abuse are becoming as serious in rural areas as they are in Dublin. The Laois Nationalist said "one of the most frightening developments to occur in Co Laois in 1996 was the arrival and use of heroin last autumn". At a drugs information meeting, gardai said even though heroin was confined to a small pocket of users, "nevertheless the fact is that it has arrived in Laois and is a cause for concern".

Following months of surveillance, gardai in Cavan broke up a "lucrative ecstasy racket which has been going on in Cavan town for some time", said the Anglo Celt.

"One parent whose daughter was recently hospitalised after consuming ecstasy tablets outside a night club, expressed grave anxiety at the manner in which young people are being manipulated to join the drugs scene," said the newspaper.

Anti drugs vigilantes sent an ominous telephone message to Kerry's Eye. "This is the Vigilantes Against Drugs in Killarney. We're after making a hit in Tore Terrace, Killarney, on a motorbike, a girl here was having a bit of a problem. We came and sorted it out ...

"This is only the start of it. We beat the s**t out of the motor bike. The owner came out to the door and he took off in the door again. He's next. This is only the start of it."

Gardai confirmed that it had been called about the incident and that the bike was a write off.

The Kerryman said 16 young people in Co Kerry are currently receiving "acute psychiatric treatment" for drug and alcohol addiction in Tralee General Hospital. A further 22 people, all under 25, are being treated for drug and alcohol addiction at the Talbot Grove treatment centre in Castleisland.

"These shocking statistics - which underline comments made by the Bishop of Kerry Bill Murphy this week that towns and communities are being decimated by drug and alcohol abuse - reveal the level of the drugs problem in the county," it said.

A new secondary schools drugs education programme was launched by Kerry gardai last week and church leaders have promised to use their sermons to initiate a joint attack on drug abuse in the county.

At St John's Church in Tralee, however, angry scenes outside the church have been distracting attention from the sermons. The Kerryman reported that the clashes occurred when the St Vincent de Paul and the Tralee Tigers Basketball Club, both of whom were collecting money from Massgoers, disagreed over which of them should be allowed to approach members of the public for contributions.