Author: Liu Yaosheng

US Defense Department spokesman Pahon once said that the greatest nightmare of Russia is Macedonia's accession to NATO. This is an exaggeration, but it does tell the truth that Russia and its small country, Macedonia, are unwilling to join NATO. Now it seems that after a long period of big powers'game, the so-called biggest nightmare of Russia is approaching.

According to the Russian Satellite Network news report on February 7, 29 NATO member states in Brussels signed the agreement of Macedonia to join NATO. NATO Secretary-General Stoltenberg said that the ratification process would start immediately after the signing of the agreement, hoping that Macedonia would soon become the 30th NATO member state. Macedonia is a small country with a population of more than 2 million and an area of only 20,000 square kilometers, which does not seem to deserve much attention from the big powers like the United States and Russia. However, it is located in the Balkan Peninsula, which is the former Yugoslavia. Therefore, whether it joins NATO or not has important symbolic significance, representing the trend of NATO's eastward expansion and the result of the game between the West and Russia. Russia has a clear attitude towards Macedonia, which is firmly opposed to Macedonia joining NATO and organizing its eastward expansion at any cost. Previously, Russia pointed out that if Macedonia joined NATO, then Macedonia would be the legitimate target of Russia in wartime. But even then, Macedonia's entry into NATO is now greenlighted, and NATO has successfully taken a new step towards Russia's borders.

A big country, especially a big country like Russia, has a necessary demand that its security and interests borders must not be limited to national boundaries, but must have its own buffer zone or friendly country area outside the borders. And NATO's step-by-step move towards Russia's borders is undoubtedly squeezing Russia's strategic space. The West tries to confront Russia's borders in order to completely crush the symbol of Russia's great power, and further increase the pressure on Russia to restrict its national power development. At present, NATO's new round of eastward expansion is fierce, and Russia has already faced the situation of NATO bayonets against its chest. After Macedonia joined NATO, it proved that Russia had lost another game in resisting NATO's eastward expansion. Next, Putin should focus on resisting the trend of NATO's eastward expansion in more important areas, namely Georgia and Ukraine. In both places, Putin will be irretrievable, because Ukraine and Georgia's accession to NATO means an unacceptable deterioration of Russia's security situation. He can only prevent these two countries from joining NATO at all costs, even by all means, including military.