NATO 'Will Collapse From the Inside,' Russian Lawmaker Predicts

A hawkish Russian lawmaker has predicted that the NATO alliance will collapse under the weight of internal division, as the Kremlin tries to frame its military quagmire in Ukraine as an existential struggle against the combined West.

Leonid Slutsky, the leader of the right-wing populist Liberal Democratic Party of Russia and the chairman of the State Duma's international affairs committee, said Tuesday he hopes the transatlantic alliance would crumble without outside pressure from its adversaries in Moscow and Beijing.

His post was a response to comments by United States Ambassador to NATO Julianne Smith, who wrote in the Financial Times on Tuesday that Moscow and Beijing are "sharing a toolkit" of strategies to undermine NATO members.

"Neither Russia nor China will have to make any effort," Slutsky wrote on his Telegram channel. "There is every chance that the alliance will collapse from the inside. Even the authoritative American press is hinting that the United States' withdrawal from NATO would be the best way to end the Ukrainian conflict."

"I am sure Europe cannot avoid indigestion from the rotting American hegemony," Slutsky added.

Slutsky's post was referring to an opinion article published in November by The Hill, in which former Assistant U.S. Attorney General Bruce Fein suggested that Congress terminate U.S. membership in NATO, thus "transforming it from a mighty offensive oak into a tiny acorn unalarming to Russia."

NATO withdrawal has rarely been a mainstream proposal in the U.S. Former President Donald Trump reportedly toyed with the idea and is said to have even threatened allies with an American withdrawal unless they increased defense spending and agreed to more "burden sharing" with the U.S.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has prompted greater inter-alliance cohesion, with NATO throwing its military and diplomatic weight behind Kyiv. The alliance has deployed significant additional resources to its eastern frontier where the Russian threat is greatest, while Russian troops traditionally placed along NATO borders have reportedly been badly mauled in Ukraine.

Ukraine has long sought to join NATO, a red line for Moscow and one of Russian President Vladimir Putin's justifications for launching his February invasion.

Slutsky said Tuesday that the war in Ukraine could have been avoided if not for "the reckless policy of NATO's eastward expansion and the anti-Russia project."

Russia's invasion might ultimately backfire. Ukrainian leaders have never dropped their ambition of NATO membership, and in September—buoyed by a successful counter-offensive that collapsed Russian lines in the northeastern Kharkiv region—President Volodymyr Zelensky submitted an official NATO application.

Public support for NATO membership has soared to historic levels since February 24, and the goals of joining both NATO and the European Union remain enshrined in Ukraine's national constitution.

Ukrainian leaders maintain that NATO's Article 5 collective defense clause is the only adequate security guarantee against future Russian aggression. The president's office has proposed the Kyiv Security Compact as a way to provide security for Ukraine while it undertakes its journey to full NATO membership.

The prospect of a NATO Ukraine is likely to remain a red line for Moscow in any future peace negotiations.