Question of the day: when will Ukraine and Georgia become NATO members?

Ukraine and Georgia will be able to become NATO members in the future, according to the final statement of the NATO summit. Specific dates of Ukraine and Georgia joining the North Atlantic Alliance are not specified in the document. The summit participants also declared their readiness for dialogue with Russia and for strengthening its containment.

“We reaffirm the decision taken at the 2008 Bucharest summit that Ukraine will become a member of the Membership Action Plan (MAP) alliance as an integral part of this process. We firmly support Ukraine's right to independently determine its future and foreign policy course without outside interference”, - the statement said. A similar decision was made with regard to Georgia.

At the same time, the publication "Yevropeyskaya Pravda" notes that the decisions of the previous NATO summits did not contain such formulations regarding Ukraine. In Georgia, this wording has been heard since 2018. This summit decision also calls on Ukraine to move towards membership through the implementation of annual national programs.

Despite this, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy criticized NATO's decision not to indicate the approximate date of the country's entry into this alliance, TASS reports, citing the press service of the Ukrainian president's office.

According to Zelensky, the administration "positively reacted to the decision of the NATO summit" on the readiness to admit Ukraine into the alliance, but noted the absence of "a specific time frame" in rapprochement with NATO. The report notes that the office hoped for more accurate data.

Political analyst Alexander Morozov, however, believes that the NATO summit communique opens a new period. Morozov named the following points as the main points in this communique:

1. Georgia is already joining NATO;
2. Ukraine is also joining NATO, the process is finally approved;
3. With regard to hybrid attacks, Article 5 comes into force, i.e. NATO and individual countries of the alliance can now view such actions as aggression, and respond to them as aggression;
4. Missile defense in Europe will now be deployed without regard to Russia's position;

“The communique is very tough, this is a new stage. The consequences for domestic policy in the Russian Federation will be very grave, ”the expert sums up.

Network analyst Anatoly Nesmiyan commented on Biden's words on this topic, which he said at his press conference following the NATO summit:

“Across Ukraine. The situation in Donbass is not an obstacle to its inclusion in the plan to join NATO. The only obstacle to obtaining it is corruption.

In fact, this phrase simultaneously contains an answer to both the Kremlin and Kiev. Moreover, the answer is extremely unambiguous. The Kremlin has said that Ukraine's NATO membership is a "red line" that it will not allow anyone to cross. Biden answers - I wanted to sneeze on your lines. When I think so, then I will enter Ukraine into the procedure. For a start - in the plan for entry. At the same time, the exclusion of Donbass from the criteria means that the Kremlin can threaten with aggravation in Donbass as much as it wants; it will not play any role in the question of Ukraine's joining NATO. That is, blackmail and maneuvers of troops along the border will not make an impression.

Kiev's response to Zelenskiy's somewhat hysterical and over-the-top demands for Ukraine's immediate admission to NATO is no less unequivocal. The key requirement of the United States to Kiev is the creation of an anti-corruption structure independent of the government, in fact, under international control. In fact, this is the surrender of the remnants of sovereignty and the transfer of the entire Ukrainian "elite" under international (read American) control. Disloyalty will automatically be equated with corruption, and hence the persecution of any official or oligarch. It is clear that the whole Ukrainian "politicum" does not like this very much, but the condition is strict and the only one: security in exchange for loyalty. And unconditional..."

At the same time, Putin said in an interview with NBC: “As for NATO, I have said many times: this is a vestige of the Cold War. NATO was born in the era of the Cold War, but why it exists today is not very clear... "He believes that the organization" still has one correct opinion, and all the others are not very good".

And the official representative of the Foreign Ministry, Zakharova, interpreted NATO's call to Russia to exclude the United States and the Czech Republic from the list of "unfriendly countries" as the alliance's desire to "be friends".

“Do I understand correctly that NATO has thereby assured us of the desire to be friends? The logic is obvious: since they are asked to exclude themselves from the list of unfriendly ones, it means they want to be considered friendly”, - the Foreign Ministry spokeswoman wrote.

According to Zakharova, the alliance should decide. "Either you stop inventing stories about" Petrov and Boshirov "and, on this basis, impose sanctions, or you are not surprised that they are unfriendly in the lists".