DATE: Saturday, April 12, 1997              TAG: 9704120300

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY BILL SIZEMORE, STAFF WRITER 
DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:   79 lines

RUSSIAN ENVOY RAPS NATO PLAN

Russia's ambassador to the United States delivered an impassioned argument Friday night against a U.S.-backed plan to expand the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to include former Soviet-bloc countries.

Yuli Vorontsov, who first came to the United States as a diplomat in 1954, gave a chilling recitation of the Cold War years, when America and the Soviet Union marched to the brink of nuclear war.

``Thank God, wisdom prevailed and we still are alive,'' he said.

But the proposal to expand NATO eastward toward Russia's borders threatens the two former foes' new friendship, Vorontsov told a symposium on NATO's future at Old Dominion University.

It is widely assumed that Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic will be invited into the Western military alliance this summer. And expansion proponents advocate future invitations to other East European nations, up to and including the Baltic countries and Ukraine.

To understand Russia's opposition to the plan, Vorontsov said, ``place yourself in the shoes of the Russian people.''

``For decades, since 1949, they were informed that a special military bloc had been formed to attack the Russian people - that this bloc had encircled the Soviet Union with hundreds of bases,'' he said.

When the Cold War ended, many Russians assumed NATO would disappear, Vorontsov said, but now that the expansion plan has taken hold, ``all the old fears have resurfaced.''

He said the plan threatens Russia's stability by inflaming nationalist and communist opponents of President Boris Yeltsin.

``You forgot to think about 150 million people in Russia,'' he said. ``Right now, they do not pay much attention. But what if some idiot jumps up, grabs a microphone and starts shouting, `Look what is happening! They are preparing to attack us!' ''

``It's a big mistake indeed,'' he said. ``You're giving additional life to a military alliance which has no reason to exist in the 21st century. It will dissipate anyhow. Why insist on bringing the mentality of the '50s into the 21st century? It will be irrelevant.''

The challenges of the 21st century will be different from the Cold War era, Vorontsov said: international terrorism, organized crime, drugs, disease, nationalism.

``I don't see the need for great military machines to counter those threats,'' he said.

The issue of NATO enlargement barely registers on the radar screen of American public opinion, but it is of great interest elsewhere in the world. That is evident in the makeup of the press corps covering this weekend's conference.

Among the 17 journalists registered for Friday's session were reporters from Germany, Denmark, the United Arab Emirates, the Paris-based International Herald Tribune and Itar-Tass, the Russian news agency.

Other than Vorontsov, none of the day's speakers expressed any overt opposition to the NATO expansion plan - not surprising, perhaps, considering that NATO is a co-sponsor of the conference.

Leading the pro-expansion chorus was Zbigniew Brzezinski, President Jimmy Carter's national security adviser, who is now a professor at Johns Hopkins University.

``NATO's enlargement is about America's role in Europe - whether America will remain a European power,'' Brzezinski declared.

He said rejection of the plan would be ``a massive defeat for the United States.''

He acknowledged that the expansion must be accompanied by some type of ``accommodation'' with Russia, which after a 50-year Cold War standoff views NATO with great suspicion.

``But nonetheless, one has to ask, accommodation at what cost?'' he said. ``There's a very, very thin line between accommodation . . . and appeasement.''

Brzezinski issued a pointed call for President Clinton to take a more vigorous role in lobbying for the expansion plan. ``I think it is urgent that the president assume a more defined, direct and personal leadership insofar as this issue is concerned,'' he said. ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]

BILL TIERNAN

Gen. John J. Sheehan, left foreground, also spoke at the symposium

on NATO's future, and a story on his talk appears on Page B2.

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