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April 26th, 2024 | 5:45 PM ET

NATO’s Ambiguity on the Red Line for Russia

Posted: August 24th, 2016

Ukraine and Georgia have made clear their desires to become full members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in order to ensure their security. But it is precisely this aim that guarantees their insecurity.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has made his red line very clear to both Ukraine and Georgia: Drawing closer to NATO and the West will incur Russia’s wrath. Fiona Hill, Director of the Center on the United States and Europe at the Brookings Institution, explained at a recent Reuters event in Washington that Putin moved into eastern Ukraine in 2014 because the Russians felt they had to intervene. Moscow had warned Kiev numerous times about moving into the West’s sphere of influence and, specifically, signing the free trade agreement with the European Union (EU).

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