Thursday, May 10, 2007

'Concerned about civil society in Russia'

Russia's been really getting excited by Estonia's decision to remove a Soviet war memorial from the center of Tallinn. And, now Poland plans to follow suit.

I wonder how far the new EU states can go pushing Russia before some of the other member states start to get nervous? And, even if it's unlikely, what would the other NATO members do if Russia attacked Estonia or Poland?

I would imagine that the Poles and Estonians will be heartened by the remarks from Germany's Europe minister Günter Gloser.
In an uncharacteristic tone for a member of the German socialist party - which is traditionally Russia-friendly - Mr Gloser also said "We are concerned about freedom of the media and civil society. The way demonstrators were recently dealt with in Moscow, St Petersburg and Nizhny Novgorod has not gone down well."
I still don't think our eastern brothers should be too sure that the EU or NATO will rescue them if things get hot.