Kerry: Russia Puts NATO’s Model of Global Leadership at Stake
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iStock/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) — Secretary of State John Kerry warned on Tuesday that Russia’s actions in Ukraine threaten the mission of NATO in the 21st century.
“The fact is that our entire model of global leadership is at stake,” he said.
Kerry added that the United States and Europe have tried for the past two decades to integrate Russia into the Euro-Atlantic community but that the actions of Russian President Vladimir Putin in recent months has rendered moot all those efforts.
“It is not as if we really haven’t bent over backwards to try to set a new course in the post-Cold War era,” Kerry said. “But what Russia’s actions in Ukraine tell us is that today Putin’s Russia is playing by a different set of rules, and through its occupation of Crimea and its subsequent destabilization of eastern Ukraine, Russia seeks to change the security landscape of Eastern and Central Europe.”
Kerry, who was speaking at the Atlantic Council’s conference commemorating the NATO alliance, suggested he was also regretful to see Russia behave this way.
“I say this was a certain element of sorrow because of all of the effort and energy that has been expended to try to create a structure by which we would behave, all of us, differently, representing the best hopes and aspirations of all people on the face of this planet,” he said.
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