Georgia

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Post-Soviet States No Longer Russian Puppets
Post-Soviet States No Longer Russian Puppets
analysis

Post-Soviet States No Longer Russian Puppets

Reactions to Georgia show self-interest

(Newser) - Former cold warriors can be expected to see the Georgian conflict as signalling a return to simpler East-vs-West geopolitics, writes Bridget Kendall for the BBC. But the reaction of the post-Soviet states shows something very different: Former Soviet client states whose loyalty was assured 20 years ago—including Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan,...

Russian Troops Leave Gori
 Russian Troops Leave Gori

Russian Troops Leave Gori

Georgian officials say pullout really happening

(Newser) - Russian troops are finally leaving Gori, Georgian officials said today, with Russia promising that by tomorrow all Russian ground forces would be confined to South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Russia intends to keep more than 2,000 troops stationed in the breakaway regions, which Georgia decries as unlawful “annexation.”...

Russia Roars, NATO Purrs
 Russia Roars,
 NATO Purrs
Opinion

Russia Roars, NATO Purrs

Alliance needs to step up and protect Eastern Europe

(Newser) - Russia had better watch its back. NATO has proven that if it goes around invading its neighbors, the world’s mightiest alliance will take action and…er… cancel the next NATO-Russia Council meeting. That’s the lone consequence NATO put forth in its statement on the “situation in Georgia,...

Russia Returns Favor, Cuts Off NATO Council

Alliance earlier stopped 'business as usual' over Georgia invasion

(Newser) - Russia formally suspended military cooperation with NATO today over Georgia, the Guardian reports, a move affecting operations in Afghanistan and the Mediterranean. “Cooperation had really already been ended with the Russians,” a US official said, per an alliance declaration earlier in the week. If NATO supports “the...

Stocks Mixed as Oil Surges
 Stocks Mixed as Oil Surges 
MARKETS

Stocks Mixed as Oil Surges

Georgian conflict raises supply fears; analysts downgrade financials

(Newser) - Stocks saw mixed results today as the Dow and S&P 500 managed to claw back from early losses due to surging oil and a weak dollar, the Wall Street Journal reports. The Dow closed up 12.78 at 11,430.21; the Nasdaq fell 8.70 to 2,380....

Gergiev to Lead Defiant South Ossetia Concert

London Symphony's principal conductor hails Russian victory

(Newser) - Valery Gergiev, the principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, among other prominent posts, will preside over a victorious concert tonight in South Ossetia, celebrating Russia’s recent military successes, theTimes reports. Gergiev is an ethnic Ossetian and close personal friend of Vladimir Putin—they are godfathers of each others’...

Nuke Advantage Emboldened Putin's Russia
Nuke Advantage Emboldened Putin's Russia
OPINION

Nuke Advantage Emboldened Putin's Russia

US disarmament partly to blame for Georgia war, says Schoenfeld

(Newser) - Diplomats and pundits have debated what led Russia to attack Georgia so forcefully, pointing to everything from newfound economic strength to a sense of national humiliation. But Gabriel Schoenfeld, editor at neoconservative magazine Commentary, has another explanation: it's Russia's growing nuclear advantage, especially with short-range arms, that has "helped...

Russia's 'Buffer Zone' Includes Georgia Territory

Moscow moves closer to recognizing breakaway enclaves

(Newser) - Russia may soon officially recognize the sovereignty of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, lawmakers said today, even as the military moved to establish so-called buffer zones that include Georgian territory, the Wall Street Journal reports. Then-president Vladimir Putin used the move to recognize the secessionist republics to criticize countries which did...

Gorbachev: Blame Georgia
 Gorbachev: Blame Georgia
OPINION

Gorbachev: Blame Georgia

Former Soviet leader blasts one-sided America coverage

(Newser) - It is important to remember that Georgia, not Russia, struck first in the conflict over South Ossetia, writes former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev for the New York Times. Russian leadership is strong domestically and did not need a victory to rally support—rather, Moscow “was dragged into the fray...

McCain Forgets That Big Talk Can Cost Lives
McCain Forgets That Big Talk Can Cost Lives
OPINION

McCain Forgets That Big Talk Can Cost Lives

Cold War should have taught US leaders not to encourage ill-fated gambles like Georgia's

(Newser) - Many in Georgia are angered over what they consider broken promises of support from the West in the confrontation with Russia. But it’s bold talk from US politicians—including hardliner John McCain—that encourages countries like Georgia to provoke Moscow, David Ignatius writes in the Washington Post, only to...

Shunning Won't Work: Invite Russia to Join NATO
Shunning Won't Work:
Invite Russia to Join NATO
OPINION

Shunning Won't Work: Invite Russia to Join NATO

Increased engagement with the bear will avert more crises: Meier

(Newser) - The kneejerk impulse to punish Russia for its Georgia incursion by withdrawing NATO civilities is exactly wrong, Andrew Meier writes in the Los Angeles Times. The only way the West can get leverage, given the case of nerves the Russians have over NATO’s expansion into former Soviet states, is...

US Chooses Georgia Over Russia at Its Own Risk
US Chooses Georgia Over Russia at Its Own Risk
OPINION

US Chooses Georgia Over Russia at Its Own Risk

Russian minister blasts misguided US

(Newser) - The US should quit blaming Russia for starting the war in Georgia, writes Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in the Wall Street Journal, and think hard before backing Tbilisi to the detriment of relations with Moscow. Georgia's "ruthless military assault" in South Ossetia forced the hand of Russia. "...

Russia Blocks UN Effort to End Georgia War

Moscow refuses call to withdraw troops to pre-conflict lines

(Newser) - Russia has rejected a draft Security Council resolution seeking to end the violence in Georgia, reports the BBC, by rejecting the UN body's call to return to its pre-conflict positions. Russia, which wants to keep its troops inside South Ossetia, said that the clause contradicts last week's ceasefire. Moscow holds...

Men Admit Bigfoot Hoax
 Men Admit Bigfoot Hoax 

Men Admit Bigfoot Hoax

(Newser) - Bigfoot hunters will just have to keep looking. Two Georgia men’s story about finding Sasquatch has—surprise!—turned out to be a hoax, Cox News Service reports. Their ruse fell apart when a block of ice containing the “body” melted—leaving behind a rubber monkey suit. The...

US Tells Russia Not to Redraw Borders

Rice takes hard line at NATO meeting on Georgia invasion

(Newser) - Russia’s “strategic objective” won’t be met by its invasion of Georgia, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned Moscow today during a NATO gathering, the Guardian reports. “This NATO which has come so far in a Europe that is whole, free, and at peace is not...

Georgian War Lays Bare Bush Policy's Failures
Georgian War Lays Bare
Bush Policy's Failures
OPINION

Georgian War Lays Bare Bush Policy's Failures

US encouraged Georgian bluster; provoked Russian paranoia

(Newser) - The Georgian war crystallizes the failure of the Bush administration's foreign policy, writes HDS Greenway in the Boston Globe. Besides the ready-made justification the Iraq war provides to any invading country, America has stoked Georgian boldness, "and now America's client is wiping blood from its nose," he writes....

Russia Seizes Georgian Port, Detains Soldiers

(Newser) - Russian troops took control of the key Georgian port of Poti for about 4 hours today, just one day after it pledged to withdraw from the country, the Wall Street Journal reports. Some 70 Russian troops entered the Black Sea port this morning and detained 20 Georgian coast guard members...

Russia, Georgia Exchange Prisoners
Russia, Georgia
Exchange Prisoners

Russia, Georgia Exchange Prisoners

But Russian military remains in Gori as NATO meets

(Newser) - Russia and Georgia exchanged prisoners of war today in a gesture that observers hope will reduce tensions and expedite a Russian withdrawal. Fifteen Georgians and five Russians were set free, the Georgian military says. Yet despite the exchange, there was still no movement of Russian troops out of Gori or...

West Worries as Russia Digs In
 West Worries as Russia Digs In

West Worries as Russia Digs In

Troops seen reinforcing positions in Georgia despite pullback agreement

(Newser) - Russian forces appear to be hunkering down rather than beginning their promised withdrawal from Georgian territory, the New York Times reports. Troops are digging in along the highway to Tbilisi and military vehicles are moving in both directions, alarming the West, according to Reuters. Pentagon officials say they have seen...

China Likely to Use Georgia War to Justify Crackdowns

Beijing sees conflict as new lesson to keep minorities in line

(Newser) - The Chinese government will likely seize upon the Georgia conflict to justify crackdowns on its own separatists in Tibet and Xinjiang, according to a Bloomberg analysis. Chinese officials view the Georgia conflict "as the result of Russia's inability to control the country," and they don't want to make...

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