Are those Russians that want to join NATO nuts? NATO is an organization that should be dismantled; There is no Warsaw pact, there is no Soviet Union. NATO is a tool of the US. Now that the US needs Russian soldiers to die in Afghanistan by joining NATO, here come all these friendly overtures of Joining NATO. Have the Russians forgot the US support of the Mujahadin, Bin Laden etc that killed Russian soldiers, Have the Russian forgot the US arming and training of the Georgian army, the humiliation in the 90's as the US attempted through the drunkard Yeltsin and his buddies to weaken Russia and rape them off their natural resources. Russia does not need NATO!!!!! Remember Yugoslavia... otherwise that all that has been stated NATO is useless!!! Russia is back as a military super power and does not need to join a political barking dog for the US.

It wont happen - not now not in the future! Not for sure with USA and not for sure under this name - ever!Russia probably will be in same soft military camp with Europe(not on this terms-for sure)without USA in the distant future.NATO states can keep dreaming. Russia is world for themselves! Russia is for NATO a missing HUMAN AND MORAL SIDE (which they don't have). Please, keep dreaming-it will NEVER come true!

NATO is an alliance in search of an enemy. Right now, Russia is convenient as an occasional "rogue state" (according to at least one NATO general last year). It makes me laugh just to think of it. If NATO offers membership to Russia, would that be a bluff? If so, Russia should call them on it and join. Would Russia be allowed to sit at the table with everybody else, or will there be a special membership category, and they would have to watch the meetings from another room?

Fred - No need to get so worried, Russia is not going to join NATO period. Russia has a pivotal role in creating a free multipolar word, we will be joining India, China and all the other independent willing countries of the world in an equitable political alliance. Russia learnt the historical lessons of how military alliances like NATO with security treaty guarantees in the end precipitate huge conflict, because of a chain reaction from episodes with smaller signatories. Don't interpret 'yeah,maybe, ooh,ah,might,could be,interesting,needs to be considered......' as a desire to join NATO. Of course we will keep talking, we need to, because kicking a conflict off because of a misunderstanding is silly. Russian on mass know NATO is against Russia, the ordinary Russian knows NATO is a tool of the US. They know Russia recovered and became a hard nut again to crack militarily, so now we are back to softly softly. Until Georgia, NATO thought they had Russia in their pocket, Georgia was a test; had they intimidated Russia so much, that they could now start piecemeal military action without reaction. You saw the answer, it was a wake up call for NATO, that Russia had been saying yeah,maybe, ooh,ah,might,could be,interesting,needs to be considered... But had all along been developing to say NO, back off that's the line in the sand. Russia will continue to say yeah,maybe, ooh,ah,might,could be,interesting,needs to be considered... all the time, whilst at the same time developing the world into an equitable fair one. The US and NATO will in the end have to come to terms with this, and realize their empire of the world oppression, is not going to happen, and that their world influence will wane and wane, whilst they sit on an oversize, super sized military machine, that eats their peoples resources and cannot cope with a modern world.

exactly Fred.... Russia joining Nato.... I can't believe it ... Imagine the new relation between Georga/Ukraine and Russia: NATO 'allies/partners' ?

it's never gonna happen. the foreign affairs dept. just doesn't want to say a direct NO because it will be politically misinterpreted as hostility

To start off, I think you Russian bastards make me sick, and you should all burn in hell. You people can keep dreaming, Russia will never be the SuperPower that it once was, ignorance and alcoholism is too rampant. To relply to Fred's comments that the U.S. and its Allies consume peoples resources with its mighty military machine. I definitely agree, and we're doing a damm good job at it. If Russia became the top enforcer in the world do you think it would be any better than the United States? Do you think it would aid the world of all its problems of injustice and hunger? NO! I think Russia would rape the world 10X more than the U.S. ever would. Russians have a long history of barbarism and time doesn't seem to change the Russian Bear.