NATO holds key to European club for Georgia, Ukraine

By Ron Popeski and Margarita Antidze

KIEV/TBILISI (Reuters) - The former Soviet republics of Georgia and Ukraine hope to put themselves on the road to closer links with the West at a NATO summit this week despite opposition from Moscow.

Their leaders will go to the summit, starting on Wednesday in Romania, to seek a Membership Action Plan (MAP) -- a road map to eventual entry already secured by Croatia, Macedonia and Albania.

But one of the crucial differences between the two former Soviet republics and their fellow aspirants in the Balkans is that former imperial master Russia resolutely opposes them joining and has warned of grave consequences if they do.

That dispute could cause a distinct chill in the air at Bucharest's vast Parliament Palace, venue for the summit, when Russian President Vladimir Putin arrives as guest of honor.

Putin said in February that if Ukraine joined NATO and accepted foreign military bases which threatened Russia's security, Moscow would re-target its missiles at the country.

"We cannot agree that the ... policy of NATO's further expansion towards the Russian borders has a positive role in creating stability, enhancing democracy and freedom in Europe," a Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said on Monday.

But for both Georgia and Ukraine, pursuing NATO membership is important enough to risk incurring Russia's wrath.

Led by pro-Western leaders, Kiev and Tbilisi see NATO as a guarantee of their security and a badge of their progress towards integration with the club of European democracies.

"My dream is a prosperous and united Georgia," Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili said in an interview in Russia's Kommersant newspaper on Monday. "NATO is one of the stages to implementing that."

BREAKAWAY REGIONS

More than that though, Tbilisi wants NATO's security guarantees to help it feel safer from its big neighbor Russia.

When a one-tonne missile landed in a farmer's field an hour's drive from Tbilisi last year, Georgia accused Russia of an act of aggression. Moscow said Tbilisi had staged the incident, and an international inquiry did not apportion blame.

Tbilisi also sees Moscow's hand behind the pro-Russian Georgian breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, where separatist forces regularly skirmish with Georgian troops.

Georgians say that Russian peacekeeping forces there provide military assistance to separatist troops. Russia provides financial aid to the breakaway regions, and has issued most residents with Russian passports.

"Georgia wants to join NATO because this organization provides security guarantees which we trust more than any other security organization," Georgy Baramidze, Georgia's state minister for European integration, told reporters.