Shun NATO, Yeltsin Warns Ex-Satellites : Russia: President condemns Lithuania’s request for membership. He criticizes ‘bloc psychology’ of seeking protection from Moscow.

President Boris N. Yeltsin moved swiftly Wednesday to denounce a request from Lithuania for NATO membership and criticize the “bloc psychology” of former Soviet satellites that seek a military alliance to protect them from Russia.

Yeltsin spokesman Vyacheslav V. Kostikov said the extension of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to Russia’s very borders would provoke a negative reaction among the Russian public.

He said it would also “promote the development of undesirable moods in civilian and military circles,” a barely veiled reference to newly elected neo-fascist lawmaker Vladimir V. Zhirinovsky, who wants to restore Russia’s lost empire.

Yeltsin fears that a burgeoning NATO could eventually “trigger military-political destabilization in the region which is key for the future of the world,” Kostikov said.

The Russian statement followed soothing remarks made Tuesday by U.S. officials, who are backing a “Partnership for Peace” program for the Eastern European and Baltic nations as an alternative to NATO membership, to avoid any hint of alienating the Russians.

Just days before President Clinton leaves for his first European summit, the United States has been advertising the Partnership for Peace plan as a way to ease European fears without irritating Moscow and re-polarizing Europe.

On Wednesday, outgoing U.S. Defense Secretary Les Aspin telephoned Russian Defense Minister Pavel S. Grachev, using a new hot line that links their offices, to personally invite Russia to join the Partnership for Peace.

Aspin said Grachev expressed “interest” during their 55-minute conversation but did not indicate whether Russia might join, the Associated Press reported.

A senior U.S. official was optimistic. “I expect Russia will join the Partnership for Peace very soon,” the official said, raising the possibility that an announcement could be made at the upcoming summit.

A Russian Defense Ministry spokeswoman said Grachev favors not the expansion of NATO but “the path leading to a truly pan-European security system.” Grachev noted that Russia and NATO already cooperate bilaterally and through multinational groups.

While Russia’s pro-Western Foreign Minister Andrei V. Kozyrev has been warm to the partnership plan, a senior Russian analyst said Wednesday that some Kremlin officials consider it NATO by another name.

“For some of them, this Partnership for Peace is just the first step to expand and absorb the Central European nations,” said Andrei V. Kortunov, a researcher at Moscow’s U.S.A. and Canada Institute and an informal adviser to the Yeltsin government. “They are suspicious.”

The NATO plan tries to avoid East-West polarization by allowing any country to join and offering no hard and fast promise of NATO rescue in case of attack.

To join the partnership, countries would have to demonstrate a commitment to democracy and the peaceful resolution of disputes, along with civilian control of the military.

But some of Yeltsin’s advisers were raised to view NATO as “a sinister plot of Western imperialism” and “somewhere in their souls, they still have this image,” Kortunov said.

Lithuania, a nation of 3.7 million that was occupied by the Soviet Union for nearly five decades, formally requested NATO membership on Tuesday.

The other Baltic nations, Estonia and Latvia, have also said they will eventually ask for membership. Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic are also pushing for admission, while Slovakia wants NATO security guarantees.