How the West's Mistakes Stoked War in Georgia

Related Newser Stories

• Hey NATO, Lay Off Russia: Qadaffi

  Dec 23, 08 4:30 PM CST
  Barack Obama would be wise to harken back to the no-meddling Monroe Doctrine and stop the West’s “addiction to interfering in the affairs of other countries,” Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi writes in the Washington Times. He blames NATO expansion to Russia’s border for moving the nuclear power to beef up its arsenal. “Intimidating Russia threatens the world, again, with nuclear war,” he writes. More »

• Georgia Needs Our Help—Not a Seat at NATO

  Nov 20, 08 7:14 AM CST
  Nicholas Kristof travels to Tbilisi, where ambitious, America-loving Georgians live in fear of a resurgent Russia. The United States needs to support this capitalist enclave in the Caucasus, writes the New York Times columnist—but not by letting it join NATO. The reason? President Mikheil Saakashvili may be brilliant and charismatic, but he has also been "spectacularly reckless," and tying American and Georgian troops together under a NATO flag would make things much worse.
  More »

• Russian Army Leaves Georgian Buffer Zones

  Oct 8, 08 2:00 PM CDT
  Russian troops have withdrawn from the “buffer zones” that separate the secessionist republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia from the rest of Georgia ahead of Friday's deadline, the BBC reports. Though Russia plans to keep 7,600 troops inside the breakaway republics themselves, the move "paves the way for the resumption of negotiations on an ambitious" EU-Russia partnership, said Nicolas Sarkozy.
  More »

• EU Snubs Talks on New Russia Pact

  Sep 2, 08 3:19 AM CDT
  Europe has backed out of talks on a new partnership agreement with Russia in the wake of the invasion of Georgia, the BBC reports.  The decision followed an emergency European summit in Brussels. The commission president said Europe could not continue with negotiations "as if nothing had happened." Talks will be suspended until Russia withdraws completely from Georgia, and the EU is prepared to send hundreds of civilians to Georgia to monitor the ceasefire agreement, said an official.
  More »

• Georgia Cuts Diplomatic Ties With Moscow

  Aug 29, 08 1:10 PM CDT
  Georgia pulled its diplomats from Moscow today, charging that it cannot engage in diplomacy with an “aggressor country,” the AP reports. A spokesman for Russia’s Foreign Ministry said the Georgians’ cutting of diplomatic ties would not benefit relations between the two countries. Russian troops remain in Georgia, both in the breakaway republics and the “buffer zone” in the country proper. More »