Why did NATO expand towards Russia? "No one claims that NATO is being expanded in favor of military contractors. - New York Times, 1998 "US arms manufacturers, who stand to make billions of dollars in sales of weapons, communications systems and other military equipment if the Senate approves NATO expansion, have invested heavily in lobbyists and campaign contributions to advance their cause in Washington. The end of the Cold War shrunk the arms industry and forced it to diversify. But the expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization—first to Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic, and later to perhaps more than a dozen other countries—would offer arms manufacturers a hugely lucrative new market. According to NATO rules, new members are required to upgrade their armies and make them compatible with those of the Western military alliance, which oversees the world's most sophisticated - and most expensive - weapons and communications systems. ".

Why did NATO expand towards Russia? "No one claims that NATO is being expanded in favor of military contractors. - New York Times, 1998 "US arms manufacturers, who stand to make billions of dollars in sales of weapons, communications systems and other military equipment if the Senate approves NATO expansion, have invested heavily in lobbyists and campaign contributions to advance their cause in Washington. The end of the Cold War shrunk the arms industry and forced it to diversify. But the expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization—first to Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic, and later to perhaps more than a dozen other countries—would offer arms manufacturers a hugely lucrative new market. According to NATO rules, new members are required to upgrade their armies and make them compatible with those of the Western military alliance, which oversees the world's most sophisticated - and most expensive - weapons and communications systems. ".