Kremlin: NATO membership invitation to Montenegro risks fuelling tension

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

World | Fri May 20, 2016 5:20am EDT

Kremlin: NATO membership invitation to Montenegro risks fuelling tension

The Kremlin on Friday condemned NATO's membership invitation to Montenegro, saying the step risked fuelling geopolitical tensions in Europe.

"In general, our stance is that NATO's further expansion is a negative process," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a conference call with reporters. "This process yields nothing from the point of view of European security."

"On the contrary, this process risks further increasing tensions on the continent."

NATO formally invited Montenegro to become its 29th member on Thursday, a decision that must still be approved by the U.S. Senate, as well as the military alliance’s other 27 parliaments and Montenegro’s own parliament.

(Reporting by Dmitry Solovyov/Robin Emmott; Editing by Andrew Osborn)

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-nato-montenegro-idUSKCN0YB0W2

[Duckhunter935]

1. And invading

Ukraine and Georgia does not, lol

[DetlefK]

2. Russia is actually pissed because the Balkans have a cultural connection to Russia.

"Yugoslavia" -> "Southern Slavia"
Russia has a cultural connection to the whole Balkan-region, almost comparable to the cultural connection to Ukraine.

Ukraine no longer wanted to be part of Russia's sphere of influence and broke in two over that question. The millennia-old friendship to Ukraine is gone.

Now NATO dares to go for another old cultural friend of Russia: The Balkans. These countries are by tradition supposed to be on Russia's side!!!

[Ghost Dog]

3. Wait a minute, NATO has invited, before the decision to invite has been approved

by the democratic institutions of the member states?

What's going on here?