Russia's War Against Ukraine
OP-ED
Judy Dempsey: Forget NATO, Russia’s got bigger problems
The picture was made during North Atlantic Council meeting at the level of NATO Defence Ministers on June 3-4, 2014.
Relations between Russia and NATO have been strained for a long time - long before the start of the crisis in Ukraine. In April 2008, President Vladimir Putin attended the NATO summit in Bucharest. The atmosphere among the allies was tense. The United States' outgoing Bush administration had wanted NATO leaders to offer the Membership Action Plan (MAP) to Georgia and Ukraine. That would have put them on a direct path to joining NATO.
