‘Kiev govt is making their country not eligible for NATO’

NATO expansion will stop as countries like France and Germany don’t want to have inside NATO a state that is ruled by such adventurous people as the ones who are in power in Ukraine, Dmitry Babich, political analyst from Voice of Russia, told RT.

RT:Kiev has demanded that Russia pulls back its troops from the border. But doesn't any country have the right to be concerned when military action is taking place less than 200 kilometers from its border?

Dmitry Babich: It’s not just a military action, it’s a tragedy when six people died for nothing. The difference between the Ukrainian and Russian languages is minimal. So six people died because what the Americans call “a cat”, Russians call it “кот” and Ukrainians call it “кiт”, that’s not enough difference to have people dying. So it’s a disgrace what the authorities in Kiev did. They are already losing their PR battle because huge majorities of Ukrainians will view this as a tragedy and the party that attacked, in this case it was the authorities in Kiev, this party will lose popularity among Ukrainians.

RT:When the Pentagon deploys 600 troops to Poland and the Baltic region, and 3 warships to Romania for exercises - that's all right. But when Moscow announces military exercises in response to something happening just across its border - it's considered a provocation. How does that work exactly?

DB: It’s enough to look at the map. What are the US taking precaution against? That is something that happens tens of thousands of miles away from Washington. These are the lands that Russians and Ukrainians, who once have been the one people, had been living in for 2,000 years now. It’s just laughable and the whole thing is a tragic comedy. This new government in Kiev, that tries to be different from Russia, saying that it is more democratic but at the same time they send the army against the protesters, something that President Yanukovich, whom they denounced as a dictator, he still stopped short of using the army against the people. He was accused of ordering the troops to shoot, he most likely didn’t do that, but they ordered troops to shoot from helicopters, APCs and tanks, which is a lot worse. We have seen it all documented and the whole problem is that the US didn’t find a single word of condemnation for their actions.

RT:For years now Russia has expressed concern about NATO's eastward expansion, which is clearly going forwards regardless. What can Russia do about this, if anything?

DB: I’m sure that NATO’s involvement will stop at the moment because countries like France and Germany don’t want to have inside their organization a country that is ruled by such adventurous people as ones who are now ruling in Ukraine. I would point your attention to the fact that Georgia was not taken into the NATO primarily because of the war in 2008 when Mikhail Saakashvili attacked a peaceful South Ossetian city. In the same way by their actions the rulers who are now in Kiev, they are making their country not eligible for NATO.

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