At 10:11 PM 5/31/99 +0100, you wrote:
>Paddy Ashdown, leader of the Liberal Democrat Party in Britain has been
>successful in persuading Tony Blair to intervene in Kosovo, and then to
>promote the idea of ground troops.
>
>On Saturday he argued that Bosnia and Kosovo were mere preludes to the
>tasks of NATO with the forthcoming implosion of the former Soviet Union.
>
>I cannot really see this. I can see Europe expecting to assimilate the
>Yugoslavia. Yesterday Slovakia just voted in a president sympathetic to the
>country aligning with the European Union and seeking NATO entry.
>
>Russia, Belarus, and the Ukraine, are surely too large to be assimilated
>and interfered with in this way. Chechnya showed that. Besides Kosovo has
>been no pushover for NATO. I would have thought the worst of the financial
>crisis was now over in Russia, and the IMF will compromise on the room for
>economic expansion.
>
>Does anyone agree with Paddy Ashdown on this point?
>
>
>Chris Burford
>
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