21.   The celebrations had been stage-managed to ensure that Russia and its former satellites would feel welcome.

22.   The pessimism can seem out of place to a visitor, in a country that leads the former Soviet satellite states in many areas of economic development.

23.   They are the product of old misperceptions about NATO and old ways of thinking about its former satellites in Central Europe.

24.   Who would have thought that the advances and retreats over expanding NATO to include the former Soviet satellites could be made so involving?

25.   Yeltsin and other Russian officials, for their part, oppose plans to bring former Soviet satellites into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

26.   A major difference between Russia and its former satellites was the speed of reforms and the commitment to embracing them.

27.   Although communists have returned to power in some former Soviet satellites, there appears to be little appetite in Russia for either man.

28.   Bulgaria and other former Soviet satellite states say NATO membership is vital to ensuring their political development and military security.

29.   Bulgaria is now the poorest of the former Soviet satellites.

30.   But his programs have made the Czech Republic one of the more successful among former Soviet satellites seeking integration into Western economic and military structures.