NATO’s New Not So Legitimate Friend

Kim Holmes / September 16, 2009

NATO chief, Anders Rasmussen, said yesterday that NATO should have closer ties with Russia and that Moscow has “legitimate security concerns.” Which country does not have security concerns? But what does Rasmussen mean by “legitimate?” Does he mean when Russia announces, as it did yesterday, that it would seize any Georgian ship it finds in the territorial waters of Abkhazia, the Moscow-backed rebel region of Georgia?

Or maybe he means when Russia occupied South Ossetia, essentially annexing parts of Georgian territory illegally? No one except for such radicals as Venezuela, Nicaragua, Hamas, and the breakaway Moldovan region of Transnitria recognizes Russia’s right to do any of these things—not even the United Nations. And yet Moscow claims the actions are “legitimate.” (more…)