Robert Amsterdam

Today Yulia Tymoshenko puts forth what I would say is a very reasonable appeal regarding her concerns over Russian expansionism:

Demand a level playing field

By Yulia Tymoshenko

In the aftermath of the Soviet Union's collapse, it was assumed that Russia's imperial ambitions had vanished - and that foreign policy toward Russia could be conducted as if former diplomatic considerations did not apply.

Yet they must apply, for Russia is a rich and ambitious nation that straddles the world's geopolitical heartland. Encouraging economic and political reform - the West's preferred means of engaging Russia since communism's end - is of course an important foreign policy tool.

But it cannot substitute for a serious effort to counter Russia's long-standing expansionism and its present desire to recapture its great-power status at the expense of its neighbors. Russia must be engaged as the world power it is, but it must also be held accountable to the standards of a responsible nation-state, both in its relations with the West and with the neighbors it has long dominated.

Read complete column here.