New York Times columnist and former reporter Thomas Friedman on U.S. and Russian parliament reaction to NATO expansion, "Washington Week in Review," May 16, 1997:

You're going to find a lot of opposition from a lot of different trends. The isolationists are going to say wait a minute, we're not sending troops or our nuclear umbrella to defend Prague, basically, that's going to be one line. Right-wing Republicans, maybe even led by Henry Kissinger, are going to say you just gave away the store to the Russians....

You've got a basically, hardline, right-wing Duma, largely, not largely but a strong communist, I'm not sure a majority but a plurality....

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