THE German Foreign Minister, Mr Klaus Kinkel, frustrated at his failure to smooth Russia's ruffled feathers on NATO's eastward expansion, has admitted that every Russian official he met in the course of his visit showed strong resistance to the concept of a larger Atlantic alliance.
Those he spoke to were President Yeltsin (by phone), the Prime Minister, Mr Viktor Chernomyrdin, the Defence Minister, Mr Igor Rodionov, and the Foreign Minister, Mr Yevgeny Primakov.
The message which came over loud and clear was that only a legally binding treaty delineating NATO's relationship with Russia and which would give Russia a say in NATO decisions affecting Russia's security, would calm Moscow's anger at the alliance's moves towards its borders.
Germany, Russia's strongest ally within NATO, had previously been optimistic about a deal on the issue but yesterday evening Mr Kinkel was not holding out any great hope of compromise.
Moscow is in the middle of a week of intense diplomatic activity on NATO with Mr Kinkel's visit to be followed today by the arrival of the Italian Foreign Minister, Mr Lamberto Dini, and then by the first official visit to Moscow by the new US Secretary of State, Ms Madeleine Albright.
Ms Albright's idea of forming a joint permanent Russian NATO brigade in the interests of European security, which was made to a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels on Tuesday, appears to have taken Moscow by surprise.
The foreign ministry declined to make an official comment on the proposal saying only that it hoped Ms Albright would explain it in more detail when she arrived in Russia.
It has also emerged that the idea of a five power summit between the US, Germany, France, Russia and Britain, to discuss expansion had come from the Russian and not the French side.
This plan, announced following Mr Yeltsin's recent meeting with the French President, Mr Jacques Chirac, has not received American support and neither has Russia's demand for a legally binding treaty.
There would appear to be little room for manoeuvre between the sides and indeed Ms Albright has said that her Moscow talks will not be in the form of negotiations.
She is likely to tell her hosts, perhaps in Russian, a language which she speaks well, of NATO's plans and to try to persuade them there is lack of hostility towards Russia.
This would far from satisfy Moscow and although there is little it can do to prevent its neighbours joining the alliance, relationships would become tense. Russia's warning that NATO expansion would create a new dividing line across Europe could become self fulfilling.
Russia's preferred option for a new security architecture in Europe is through the Organisation for Security and Co operation in Europe.
Late last year when the Tanaiste led the EU troika to Moscow Mr Primakov made this very clear in a pointed intervention following Mr Spring's statement on security. OSCE, Mr Primakov said, understood the contemporary situation in Europe better than other international organisations.
At the time this was taken as shorthand for a message that NATO, as far as Russia was concerned, was still thinking in Cold War terms.
Mr Primakov yesterday refused to comment to the Reuter news agency on Ms Albright's proposal for a permanent brigade to include Russian troops saying pointedly: "I have not heard about it from her. I heard about it through the press."
Ms Albright will arrive in Moscow today and in the course of her visit will meet Mr Chernomyrdin, Mr Primakov and the Orthodox Patriarch of Moscow and All the Russias, Alexiy II, before her talks, with Mr Yeltsin tomorrow.
