THE EUROPEAN SECURITY FACED WITH RUSSIA'S TENDENCY TO RECOVER ITS SPHERE OF INFLUENCE

By its attitude of getting closer to, and strengthening cooperation with, the western European states, especially Germany, on issues related to the security of the area, and far from displaying hostility or arrogance, Moscow seems to be ignoring the Central European states, in their best effort to counterbalance the Russian Federation's recovery and increase of the latter's influence in this area. The buffer-zone status of the countries in Central Europe has been unavoidable under the recent geostrategic developments and is not at all convenient for them. The borderline between this state of affairs and the emergence of crises between the two regions, i.e., the east and the center, is very frail. By regrouping and containing the Russian Federation's influence at the end of the Cold War, Federal Germany had at least two reasons of satisfaction: the unification with East Germany and shifting the buffer-zone between Berlin and Moscow to the East, due to the NATO member states existing in Central Europe. All these geopolitical developments have built Germany the constant pathway to what it once used to be, i.e., a leading decision-making actor in Europe.