Actually his sleep was rather short. I wasn't expecting such an early manifestation of Russian expansionist desires. The Russian population has been smarting ever since the reviled Mikhail Gorbachev ceded territories that had been part of Russia for centuries along with those that were recent acquisitions. Moreover, the Russians lost not only land but their comfortable though broken economic system. Capitalism as practiced in Russia was alien to them, more akin to the Wild West (with a mafioso overlay). The Russian people were humiliated, their economy in ruin, political chaos, illegal business practices that resulted in ill-gotten wealth for some people while most of the people couldn't even get their monthly paycheck. Medical care, never that great, crashed: life expectancy dropped precipitously. The armed forces were in shambles. All in all, it looked as if Russia would not be an active player on the international scene for a long time to come.
It was about this time, shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union, that the discussion of Hungary's membership in NATO was hotly debated. By now few people remember that the first person who came up with the idea that Hungary and the whole Eastern European region should join NATO and the European Union was Gyula Horn. That was on February 24, 1990. Gyula Horn was foreign minister in the Németh government, the last before the change of regime. Lawrence Eagleberger called Horn's statement revolutionary. See The New York Times ( http://tinyurl.com/63tzc2 ).
It seems that Horn learned something from history. Perhaps he remembered the interwar period when the Allied and Associated Powers created a string of small states between the two prostrate great powers, Germany and Russia, and left them high and dry. Indeed, in the 1920s there was no trouble; neither Germany nor the Soviet Union was strong enough to threaten the Baltic States, Poland, Romania, Hungary, Yugoslavia or Bulgaria. However, we know what happened later. Therefore, I for one, from day one, became an ardent supporter of Hungary's joining NATO. However, to my great surprise there were a lot of people in Hungary at that time and even later who kept saying: why does Hungary need military protection? Who would want to attack Hungary? I suggested that one day Russia would be a great power again and would most likely echo Russian history where Muscovy spread its territories (in Russian history this is called the "Gathering of Russia") and later kept expanding even into territories that were not populated by Russians or Slavs. In this case Eastern Europe should take out an insurance policy. I don't think I was successful convincing those who thought NATO was for the birds. Joining NATO was not important and belonging would mean further military obligations for the country. In fact, some people went so far as to announce that keeping up an army was totally unnecessary.
Russia recovered and started to flex its muscles. For a while it seemed that Russian pressure on Europe would be only economic, through oil and natural gas. (This, by the way, is not insignificant as Russia works to gain greater leverage/monopoly in the international oil industry.) Russian bombing of Georgia, a sovereign state, was unimaginable a few years ago. As far as I can ascertain the contested territories were only an excuse for Russia to attack Georgia. What really troubled Russia was Georgia's pro-western orientation and its intention to join NATO.
Nor surprisingly Vladimir Putin and Mikheil Saakashvili don't like each other, but Russian antagonism toward Georgia has little to do with the personality of the Georgian president. Georgians want to belong to the western alliance. The Russians say that they refuse to deal with Saakashvili. But their problem is not with the personality of the president of Georgia. As far as I can see to the Russians only a pro-Russian, anti-western Georgia would suffice, and if that is the case that could involve installing a Russian puppet government in Tbilisi. And then there is Ukraine, as Viking rightly pointed out in his comment. Ukraine would also like to join the European Union and most likely NATO as well. In Ukraine there is a very large Russian minority that would prefer to be in Russia rather than in Ukraine. What will Russia do if they feel that Ukraine is joining the forces of Russia's adversaries? Will they start bombing Kiev and install a puppet government there? Or repeat the old tricks from the 1920s where the people themselves beg Russia to incorporate them into the Soviet Union? In this case Hungary again could have a new/old neighbor. Yes, Viking, I also think that the situation is serious.
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