Vladimir Putin got applause twice during his only appearance before the press in Bucharest. First it was when he appeared at the press conference instead of the supposed-to-come Russian foreign minister Lavrov. And the second time it was when answering to the question about his impressions as of an outgoing president, he said he can’t help waiting for demob. Then he thanked the press for covering his labour in a hard but glorious epoch of Russia’s revival. According to him, the objective picturing Russia by the journalists influenced positively the perception of Russia in the world. Probably, his gratitude was intended for the Kremlin’s pool as the perception of Russia by the big western world leaves much to be desired at the end of the Putin’s office. 

The experts and politicians also had discussions during the Bucharest conference, going in parallel to the summit. A Russian propaganda-making expert was indignant with the anti-Kremlin attitude by the audience that asked a question that was left unanswered: if Russian official position is that NATO is a hostile bloc, then what the Russia-NATO councils is needed for and why Putin had come to the meeting with the NATO states and governments to discuss the contribution by the NATO alliance into the solution of global safety issue? And is Russia willing to contribute too, instead of making a point of restraining the NATO’s expansion?       

The Russian president himself tried to give an answer.  

He explained that Russia is a self-sufficient country and she is not going to sacrifice part of her sovereignty like the NATO members do. She is capable of defending herself and so there is no need for joining the alliance. But of course, it’s impossible to response effectively to the global challenges alone. And so being a key player in the world arena, NATO is a priority partner for Russia, and Russia is ready for “a la carte” cooperation in the spheres where our interests coincide. “At the end of the day, nothing separates us from each other” concluded the president.     

Just before the meeting Russia-NATO the Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and NATO’s General Secretary Yaap de Hoop Skheffer signed the documents for transit of food and some kinds of equipment through Russia’s territory to Afghanistan, intended for International forces for security in the region. The Afghani president Khamid Karzai and NATO’s secretary Skheffer told to a Novaya Gazeta correspondent that this is a real contribution by Russia into a hard and decisive for NATO’s authority Afghani campaign.       

One of the chief topics of the NATO summit was decision made concerning Ukraine and Georgia whose governments, wishing to join the bloc, made an application for membership action plan. Moscow had been turning the screw on the NATO countries so that to prevent that. And when the action plan was failed to be received by the applicants, the comments appeared about a big diplomatic victory by Putin.  

However, Viktor Yushchenko and Mikhail Saakashvili did not go home empty-handed. First, they were suggested a special formula of relationship with NATO, which is transferred from “intensive dialog” to “intensive collaboration”. But the main point is that they were told plainly they would become NATO members as long as they met a certain criteria, and then no one from outside would be able to put a veto on the NATO’s decision.  

In a certain sense, that can be recognized even more favorable for the applicants, as the membership action plan does not define automatically future joining the bloc. The statement made at the summit means that joining NATO by Ukraine and Georgia is just a question of time.

Yushchenko and Saakashvili considered the promise by NATO to be their political victory, although they admitted that getting “status” action plan would have been more preferable for them.

The summit has shown that even less important reasons than those by Ukraine and Georgia (that’s disagreement by the population in the Ukraine and the conflict with Abkhazia for Georgia) can be a barrier for entering the western alliance.

That way, Macedonia was refused due to the veto put by Greece made because of the country’s name that coincides with one the Greek provinces. The NATO secretary explained that as long as the solution was found, Macedonia would get invited without necessity to wait for the next summit. Macedonians got offended about the fact that a serious military bloc failed to make Greece give up its ludicrous requirement. Macedonian prime minister Nikola Gruevski said he would better spend the money on the raising the life standards in his country. Some experts wonder whether that was said about the Russian money lent to Macedonia.