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This century's last summit of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe is to open in Istanbul on Thursday. The nations of the continent expect a lot from it. The outcome of this meeting will be important in determining the nature of further developments in the area of security: whether there is going to be a meaningful step towards creating a common European security architecture or a throwback to confrontation and military stand-off.
Throughout the preparations leading up to the Istanbul summit, Russia has consistently sought to develop common principles that would allow Europe to leave behind, finally, the abyss of the cold war and to build, in co-operation, a stable and prosperous region in the 21st century.
Together with our partners, we have managed to achieve a great deal. We have come to Istanbul with a number of important draft documents - first and foremost, the European Security Charter and the adapted Treaty on Conventional Forces in Europe.
I hardly need to explain how important it is for all OSCE member states to adopt these documents, which could become the bedrock of a common European security.
Recently, however, Nato member states have started to inflame artificially the atmosphere surrounding the Istanbul meeting. The formal pretext for this is the Chechen conflict, which everyone admits to be Russia's internal affair. Relying on rumours spread in the western media by the sponsors of Chechen terrorists, an anti-Russian campaign is being widely promoted in some Nato countries in the best traditions of the recent past. Especially loud in this choir are those who advocated the barbarian bombardments of cities and villages in the sovereign Yugoslavia.
In their rush to criticise Russia, some countries have gone as far as to claim that, in Istanbul, Russia will be called to account for its actions in Chechnya. But the conveniently forgotten fact remains that the Russian leadership is fighting international terrorism in Chechnya - and all states have undertaken to support each other in eradicating this evil. Some people seem to have forgotten that flirting with terrorists is like playing with fire: the flames can quickly spread to your house, too.
Under such circumstances, a legitimate question inevitably arises: is everybody truly committed to the success of the Istanbul summit? In the light of the campaign launched in the Nato states, people in Moscow are starting to doubt whether Nato is really prepared to comply with the documents that are to be signed in Istanbul.
I have to admit that the Russian public has good reason for these sorts of apprehensions. In our country everyone remembers that last spring Nato openly violated the UN Charter by unleashing aggression against Yugoslavia. The OSCE fundamental principles and norms were defied.
Suffice to recall here that such principles of the Helsinki Final Act include the non-use or threat of force, inviolability of frontiers, territorial integrity of states, non-interference with internal affairs.
By its actions, Nato openly challenged the 1949 Geneva Conventions, the code of conduct relating to the politico-military aspects of security.
The question often raised in Moscow is whether Kosovo and Chechnya are links in a chain of steps towards the creation of a one-dimensional, Nato-centred world. Is Chechnya being used as a smoke-screen for preparing Nato to assume the role of a world policeman, for undermining the fundamental components of strategic stability and reversing the disarmament processes? Has the anti-Russian campaign over Chechnya been launched to force Russia out of the Caucasus, and then out of central Asia? And these are by no means the only concerns that have arisen in Russian public opinion with respect to the actions - or, sometimes, the lack of actions - of our western partners.
All these questions need to be answered before we take serious, epoch-making decisions on Europe in Istanbul. If some of our partners are not prepared to take into account Russia's opinion on those problems that are of vital importance to us, then perhaps it would be better to take one's time and wait, as we say in Russia, for better times.