YAVLINSKY: NATO EXPANSION WILL PLEASE RUSSIAN GENERALS.

Yabloko leader Grigory Yavlinsky said in Cologne January 23 that Russia would be better off staying out of the debate on NATO enlargement. "If Warsaw wants to join NATO, this is Poland’s business and none of Russia’s," he was quoted as saying. His remarks were anything but a plug for expansion, however. Yavlinsky noted that Russian generals and defense industrialists would welcome NATO expansion because they could then count on a bigger defense budget to counter the rising threat from the West. (3)

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