The NATO-Russia founding act trojan horse or milestone of reconciliation?

On 27 May 1997, the heads of state and government leaders of the sixteen NATO members and the Russian president Boris Yelatsin signed in Paris the Founding Act on Mutual Relations, Cooperation and Security between the Russian Federation and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation(NATO)-NATO Russia-Founding Act for short. Even in the Nineties, during which there has certainly been no lack of historic events, the ceremony at the Elysee can claim special significance, since it puts the relationship between the two main antagonists of past decades on a promising contractual foundation. To a certain extent, this document has also finally put an end to the Cold War, eight years after the fall of the Berlin Wall. However, unlike the Ukraine, which formulated a parallel joint document with NATO (whose designation ''Charter'' gives it a slightly lower status in terms of protocol), Russia demonstrates marked restraint with respect to the cooperative possibilities of the relationship of association the Act has formally established. In the following article, karl-Heinz Kamp, head of the Foreign and Security Policy Department, Research and Consultancy Division, at the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in SanktAugustin near Bonn, examines the political implications and intentions associated with the NATO-Russia Founding Act.