beyondukraine.euandrussiainsearchofanewrelation

After Maidan: Re-Starting NATO-Russia Relations 57
engage Moscow were a revitalization of the NRC, then Russian
President Vladimir Medvedev’s attendance at the alliance’s 2010
Lisbon summit, and the inclusion in NATO’s new Strategic
Concept of a section on relations with Russia 29 . Nonetheless, even
the ‘reset’ turned out to be an inadequate remedy that could not
revive an institution that had been decisively undermined by the
conflicting strategic priorities of its most powerful members; as
such, it represented another missed opportunity for a clarification
of the former Soviet space’s collocation in the post-Cold War
European order. While bringing about a number of results in lowprofile
areas, such as Russia’s ratification of the Status of Forces
Agreement, which paved the way for joint military exercises on
Russian territory, and the inauguration of the Cooperative
Airspace Initiative, which brought together Russia and NATO to
pool air traffic data to combat air-based terrorism, the ‘reset’ failed
to assuage the Kremlin’s grievances that the current architecture
marginalizes Russia and produces a bifurcation of security on the
continent. Whereas Washington confirmed its determination to
pursue missile defense, criticized Russian plans to establish
permanent military bases in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, and
condemned measures taken by the Kremlin to quell domestic
opposition, Moscow continued to campaign for the establishment
of an ‘all inclusive’ Pan-European security – from Vancouver to
Vladivostok or Helsinki Plus – architecture, to prevent any further
alliance enlargement, and to seek the West’s implicit acceptance
of the post-Soviet space as an area of ‘privileged interests’, as
proven by Medvedev’s 2008 proposal for a new Pan-European
security treaty that would limit troop deployments in Eastern
Europe, and by successive requests for the establishment of a
formal dialogue between NATO and the Russian-engineered
Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) 30 . While the
29 At Lisbon, Russian officials reiterated an interest in carrying out a joint review of
common security challenges, acknowledging the need for shared initiatives on
Afghanistan, terrorism, piracy, weapons of mass destruction, and natural and manmade
disasters. J. Kulhanek (2011), p. 43.
30 Medvedev’s proposal, which was advanced at the World Policy Forum in Evian in
October 2008, is available at the following web site: