Russia needs to be part of Europe, but process will take time

MOSCOW -- A former U.S. national security adviser urged Russia on Tuesday to rebuild itself as a strong, successful democracy if it wants to provide a counterbalance to U.S. power.

Zbigniew Brzezinski, national security adviser to former President Carter, told the former Cold War foe he understands its "sense of resentment at the unusual position the United States occupies in the world today."

But Brzezinski said it is Russia's task to create a new role for itself in Europe and in the international community.

Brzezinski's plea at a Moscow conference echoes remarks by former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, who urged a Russia-Europe relationship free of old barriers.

"If we improve relations between Russia and Germany, that is not aimed against anyone. It is a sensible act," said Kohl, who presided over German reunification in 1990. "German-Russian relations have always been a yardstick of the political climate in Europe."

Kohl's successor, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, has pursued closer ties with Russia based on a strong personal relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin -- who speaks fluent German from his time as a KGB agent in former East Germany.

Putin has also reached out to President Bush, by offering Russia's strong support after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. But despite warmer ties, many Russians remain wary of what they see as U.S. dominance and a march eastward by NATO and the European Union.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, created as a mutual defense against the Soviet Union, is expected to welcome later this year the three small Baltic nations of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The three made NATO membership a top foreign policy priority after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Russia strongly opposes their membership, which would bring the military alliance to its doorstep.

But Brzezinski said that while he accepted that there was a "disproportion" of U.S. power in the world today, he bristled at the suggestion that the world was more stable during the Cold War when Soviet and American power balanced one another.

"NATO is a military bloc that carries out large-scale exercises in Poland and Norway. Who are those exercises aimed against?" moderate Russian lawmaker Andrei Kokoshin asked Tuesday. He accused the United States of "proceeding from a policy of supremacy in solving international problems," ignoring the views of Russia and other nations.

But Brzezinski said that while he accepted that there was a "disproportion" of U.S. power in the world today, he bristled at the suggestion that the world was more stable during the Cold War when Soviet and American power balanced one another.

"I find it a little difficult to accept this sentimental nostalgia for that kind of situation," Brzezinski said. "We are much more secure today than when we had pistols, cocked and loaded, pointed at each other's heads."

He said the world should work toward building broader security alliances, and that the best counterweight to U.S. power would be "the emergence of other powers that are at the same time democratic."

"I will be very happy to see a very successful, democratic Russia playing a major global role someday," Brzezinski said.