The invitation to Montenegro to join the Atlantic Alliance, at this time, seems a strategic mistake

A new source of friction is looming between the Atlantic Alliance and Russia: the invitation made by the foreign ministers of the organization in Brussels to Montenegro to be part of the military alliance is likely to make further stiffen the relations between the two parties. The state of the Balkan Peninsula is hardly a military giant, its small size, both political and military (its military reach about 2,000 units), but is considered important because of its location with the outlet to the Adriatic Sea, which , thanks to the depth of the water, allowing berthing of large ships. However, these reasons do not seem to justify, at least in this moment in history, creating a new point of fracture between the Atlantic Alliance and Russia, who did not take at all well to the proposal made Podgorica. Moscow believes that feeds a strategy of encirclement that is intended to isolate the country and oust Russia from what it considers its sphere of influence. On the other hand, the proposal was not greeted with enthusiasm by the entire country of Montenegro, which appears literally split on the possibility of entering into NATO. For cultural or religious reasons, the Orthodox worship is followed by more than 70% of the population, the affinity with Russia is deeply felt by the inhabitants of the country and according to the Moscow authorities a possible referendum on this matter would be rejected by the electorate country. Looking at the global situation, where the main interest at the moment, is the defeat of the Islamic State, the proposal seems to want to irritate so unreasonable the Russian country and compromising the agreement in the fight against the caliphate. In fact, the first reaction of Moscow was to threaten to stop all forms of collaboration with the West in the conflict with the Islamic state. Only after assurances from the Secretary of State, the position of the Kremlin has softened, but the question remains of why take this step right now. Some analysts want to see a signal to Moscow that, despite the Syrian crisis, the Ukrainian front was not forgotten, though, inevitably, appears now taken a back seat. The American explanation that there is no hostile intention toward Russia, but only a fact about the Atlantic Alliance and Montenegro completely unconvincing and the fact that the invitation was made on German pressure, highlights how Whether an initiative that is part of the European strategy to integrate more and more eastern European countries under a single sphere of influence. This logic was certainly endorsed by at least a part of the US government, the same one that has had a similar behavior with Ukraine and which then gave rise to the crisis with Russia; This certainly does not absolve violations of Moscow, under the gravest of international law and which have remained unpunished even if not for measures of economic sanctions; However, the present does not seem to justify such a choice. Maybe they wanted to use the moment of relative weakness of Moscow, became the object of terrorist attacks, together with the assessment that, in any case, Russia alone can not achieve victory against the caliphate and that, therefore, on this ground is required to cooperate with the West even leaving aside issues that the Kremlin considers crucial to its foreign policy. The hope is that these assessments are true and the move to integrate Montenegro proves not a gamble miscalculated, with the result of exacerbating Moscow and get a tightening on the Syrian issue, which could undermine future peace negotiations. Unfortunately recent American foreign policy has not at all distinguished by farsightedness and the largest shareholder of the Atlantic Alliance does not seem to have fully assessed the risks of the proposal to the Balkan country performed at this time, where there was no need to exacerbate the already strained relations with Moscow but try to promote dialogue and cooperation in every way: in this perspective, this move appears a mistake by amateurs, which will hopefully not pay the political consequences.