THE MILITARY AND POLITICAL INFLUENCE OF THE UNITED STATES AND WESTERN EUROPE IN THE EASTERN EUROPEAN REGION

The subject of the study is the military policy of the United States and Western European countries in the Eastern European region. The article shows the focus of the US and Western Europe to con-solidate and expand its influence in the East European region and the establishment of the post-Soviet space “cordon sanitaire” around Russia. Particular attention is paid to the analysis of the West's desire to use the Eastern European countries to create a zone of instability in the countries bordering on Russia and Euro-Atlantic integration processes in Eastern Europe. The main conclusion of the study is that the United States and Western European countries are using all possible, including clearly contrary to inter-national law, the methods (a good example is the Ukraine) to engage the countries of Eastern Europe and, in particular, the former Soviet republics into the orbit of its influence. At the same time for the sake of their own interests, they are ready to accept a purely political decision to integrate into Euro-Atlantic structures, even those countries that do not meet the criteria of the West.