December 2, 2008 8:01:44 PM CST
(Newser) – Dmitry Medvedev accused the US of baiting the bear today by using military vessels to deliver humanitarian aid to Georgia. “I wonder how they would feel if we now dispatched humanitarian assistance to the Caribbean, suffering from a hurricane, using our navy,” mused the Russian president, theorizing that the US was actually using the trips to rebuild Georgia’s army.
NATO, meanwhile, brushed off accusations that it was deploying more warships to the Black Sea, saying the vessels were merely on routine exercises. The US has sent three warships to Georgia, the most recent and largest of which landed yesterday at the Russian-controlled port of Poti. At the same time, President Bush is contemplating breaking off a nuclear trade deal with Russia as punishment for the Georgian invasion.
Sources Reuters, CNN
10 hours, 48 minutes ago The US will urge NATO today to put Georgia and Ukraine on the road to membership, Reuters reports. France and Germany, worried about Russia’s response, blocked a similar move at an April summit. Though members agreed in principle that the two former Soviet republics could someday be members, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is expected to push for further compromise. More »
Nov 25, 08 3:46 PM CST President Dmitry Medvedev is signaling that Russia and the US could have a less contentious relationship under Barack Obama, and Obama should heed the call, Pat Buchanan writes in the American Conservative. “Russia does not want the Cold War II that the departing neocons wish to leave on his plate,” Buchanan writes of Obama, and two recent acts by Medvedev bear this out. More »
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 »
Nov 5, 08 1:06 PM CST Russian President Dmitry Medvedev delivered an aggressive speech against the US today, threatening to deploy short-range missiles and perhaps its navy to “neutralize” US plans for an anti-missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic. Moscow perceives the American defense system—which Washington says is intended to deter “rogue” nations—as a direct threat, reports the BBC. More »
Oct 21, 08 4:14 PM CDT Ranking US and Russian military commanders met face to face for the first time since the Georgian crisis, the AFP reports. Few details emerged from the Helsinki meeting, but it appeared to be a first step toward a mending of relations. Michael Mullen, chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the relationship “will not return to exactly where it was before Georgia,” but pointed out “that even in the darkest days of the Cold War we were talking to each other.” More »
I wonder how they would feel if we now dispatched humanitarian assistance to the Caribbean, suffering from a hurricane, using our navy. - Dmitry Medvedev
George W. Bush • Russia • Georgia • NATO • Dmitry Medvedev • Navy
