RUSSIA: VLADIMIR ZHIRINOVSKY COMMENTS ON EXPANSION OF NATO

Record ID: 649367

  • Title: RUSSIA: VLADIMIR ZHIRINOVSKY COMMENTS ON EXPANSION OF NATO
  • Date: 15th February 1997
  • Summary: MOSCOW, RUSSIA (FEBRUARY 15, 1997) (RTV) GV EXTERIOR U.S. EMBASSY, PROTESTERS GATHERED WITH BANNERS, MUSIC PLAYING (2 SHOTS) 0.11 SLV ULTRA-NATIONALIST VLADIMIR ZHIRINOVSKY'S MERCEDES CAR ARRIVING AT EMBASSY 0.18 SLV ZHIRINOVSKY GETS OUT OF CAR, SHAKES HANDS WITH SUPPORTERS 0.35 ZHIRINOVSKY TALKING TO REPORTERS, SAYS: "NATO (NORTH ATLANTIC TREATY ORGANISATION) MEANS WAR; WE WILL TAKE ALL POSSIBLE MEASURES AGAINST ITS EXPANSION. WE WILL CREATE OUR OWN MILITARY BLOC, WE WILL GIVE WEAPONS TO NATO COUNTRIES' NEIGHBOURS" (RUSSIAN) 1.01 SLV POSTER SAYING "NATO PLANS DESTROY RUSSIA". 1.05 SV ZHIRINOVSKY ADDRESSING CROWD STANDING ON TOP OF TRUCK, TALKING ABOUT OFFICIALS BETRAYING RUSSIA'S INTERESTS (RUSSIAN) 1.34 SLV ZHIRINOVKSY GETS OFF TRUCK 1.47 GV U.S. FLAG 1.50 SV ZHIRINOVKSY GETS INTO HIS CAR, WAVING AT THE CROWD, SAYS: "THERE WILL BE PEACE WHEN WE WILL FINISH OFF NATO" (RUSSIAN) 1.56 SLV ZHIRINOVSKY GETS INTO CAR, DRIVEN OFF 2.07 Initials S2 P2/3 Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
  • Embargoed: 2nd March 1997 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: MOSCOW, RUSSIA
  • Country: Russia
  • Reuters ID: LVABWWJZMC7UX2L5XGITU1WH171I
  • Story Text: Russian ultra-nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovksy, whose inflammatory rhetoric has become a trademark, has said that NATO is repeating the mistakes of French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte and Nazi leader Adolf Hitler by preparing to expand to the east.
    Around 200 members of Zhirinovsky's bizarrely-named Liberal Democratic Party gathered on Saturday (February 15) outside the U.S. embassy in Moscow to protest against NATO's eastward expansion.
    Zhirinovsky addressed the crowd, telling them that NATO's plans to incorporate former communist countries in central and eastern Europe were tantamount to declaring war against Russia.
    He threatened to hold demonstrations outside the Moscow embassies of other NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) countries, and said Russia should create a new military bloc that would include Moslem and Asian countries to counter the Western alliance.
    Protesters waved banners that read "the United States and NATO are destroying Russia" and "NATO's insolence knows no bounds".
    Zhirinovsky's Liberal Democratic Party is the second largest in the State Duma lower house of parliament after the communists.
    There is a rare degree of consensus among nearly all Russia's political factions about NATO's expansion plans, which they see as a direct threat to national security.
    Earlier this week President Boris Yeltsin's press secretary, Sergei Yastrzhembsky, accused NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana of pursuing a covert, anti-Russian policy during a trip to four former Soviet republics.
    NATO is expected to formally invite several of Moscow's former Warsaw Pact allies to join the alliance at a summit in Madrid later this year.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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