"NATO is under American thumb”

John Laughland, Director of Studies at the Institute of Democracy and Cooperation in Paris shared his views on NATO-Russia missile defense and other topics with RT.

The analyst said that the initiative to explore the possibility of joint Russia-NATO-US missile defense shows that NATO simply follows the US policies in the field. Apart from that, he talked about the possibility of Allied Forces’ withdrawal in 18 months, and disagreements between Russia and NATO on the recognition of newly-appearing states, namely South Ossetia, Abkhazia and Kosovo.

"NATO is losing massively in Afghanistan. The announcement that 30,000 more American troops will be sent there, thousands more of British troops as well, shows that the problem is absolutely intractable. They say this is an exit strategy, they say that they want to get out in one and a half years – we'll have to wait and see,” John Laughland said.

“And I think that they have looked at the issues closely and they have realized that this confrontation with Russia is doing them no good at all. And as they stare defeat in the face in Afghanistan, they need to get Moscow on their side somehow. So I think this is a symbolic attempt to do that. I don't, incidentally, believe that the missile shield itself will even lead to anything substantial. But it is, yes, a symbolic development in terms of relations between the West, between NATO and Russia.”