Bring Russia out of the cold and into the fold

Sir, The US and its Nato and EU allies can respond to Russia over the Ukraine crisis in at least two diametrically opposed ways: a zero-sum confrontational or a positive-sum collaborative approach. The first option is implicit in your editorial “Nato comes home to its historic base in Europe” (June 24), with its emphasis on the need for Nato “to deter the risk of future Russian aggression in eastern Europe after Moscow’s incursion into Ukraine”. By contrast, the second option inheres in the letter (June 26) from Hugh Wotherspoon, who argues that “the west’s long-term aim is for Russia and its neighbours to join Nato”.

What to do? In his interview with Kathrin Hille (June 22), Sergei Ivanov, chief of staff of Vladimir Putin’s presidential administration, provides a hint about what the Russian president “really wants” by commenting: “ . . . if we talk about Europe, let’s talk about a large and common Europe, and not about a Europe with dividing lines.” Clearly, Russia is not a member of Nato, even though, in 1993 and again in 2002, George H W Bush’s former secretary of state, James A Baker III, recommended that Russia be brought in to the Atlantic Alliance. Since exclusion from major institutions is a primary driver of violent conflict, isn’t it time that we brought Russia in from the cold, eliminated the dividing lines in Europe and, in the process, nipped in the bud the Ukraine crisis?

Dennis JD Sandole

Professor of Conflict Resolution and International Relations,

School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution,

George Mason University,

Arlington, VA, US