WHILE they euphorically announced the end of the division of Europe that began at the 1945 Yalta Conference, NATO leaders in Paris yesterday tactfully did not mention who lost the Cold War.
The westerners kept verbally patting the Russian President, Mr Boris Yeltsin, on the back - as if to say: "It's alright Boris, we forgive you. You'll like the new NATO."
Mr Yeltsin wore a frozen grin, walked like a robot, never blinked and clowned around, ostentatiously grinding his pen into the NATO-Russia charter when he signed it.
Mr Clinton's words of encouragement were typical: "Russia's transition to democracy and open markets is as difficult as it is dramatic," he said. "And its steadfast commitment to freedom and reform has earned the world's admiration."
The Founding Act was not a "consolation prize" to Russia for enlargement, a NATO spokesman said; everyone knew that it was.
There was just one little sentence in Mr Yeltsin's otherwise predictable speech - about the historic nature of the accord and peace for future generations - that raised a flag of warning: "Russia still views negatively the expansion plans of NATO," he said, all the while paying tribute "to the readiness exhibited by NATO countries to ... take into account our interests".
At Russian insistence, the accord states that "member States of NATO reiterate that they have no intention, no plan and no reason to deploy nuclear weapons on the territory of new members, nor any need to change any aspect of NATO's nuclear posture or nuclear policy - and do not foresee any future need to do so".
Back home, Mr Yeltsin was able to portray the above passage to his communist and nationalist opposition as a concession. In fact, NATO officials said, they don't need to deploy nuclear weapons or engage in troop build-ups in eastern Europe - not for the moment. But NATO reserves the option to do so.
"Provisions of this Act do not provide Russia or NATO, in any way, with a right of veto over the actions of the other nor do they infringe upon or restrict the rights of Russia or NATO to decision-making and action," the agreement says.
Russia has made it clear that it will not accept the admission of the Baltic states or former members of the Soviet Union to NATO.
That is a promise the US will not make, and in the long term this glossed-over disagreement could nullify the Founding Act signed yesterday.
"The US believes there should be a second round of NATO enlargement a couple of years after Madrid," Mr Nicholas Burns, the State Department spokesman, said. "We have never excluded the Baltic states . . . Russia has a voice, not a vote. There is a very important distinction between the two."
The presidents of the Baltic states, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, yesterday issued a declaration expressing their fear that the agreement signed in Paris could consign them to a security "grey zone
Mr Alexander Lebed, the former Russian general turned politician, was also unhappy about the elegant ceremony in Paris.
The expansion of NATO to the former east bloc - the underlying reason for the NATO-Russia accord - "establishes the spheres of influence of the United States and the alliance, the victors in the Cold War," he wrote in an article in Izvestia.
"Russia is the loser here, and is signing its act of surrender," said Mr Lebed.
Aside from Mr Yeltsin, the other star guest in Paris was Mr Tony Blair, the new British Prime Minister.
. The accord creates a Russia-NATO Permanent Joint Council which will convene for the first time before September. A Russian ambassador will be appointed to NATO headquarters in Belgium.
