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Guardian (UK)
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Aug 21, 08 4:41 PM CDT
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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 bankrupt Saakashvili regime to the detriment of partnership … it's not our fault,” Russia’s foreign minister said.
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Times (UK)
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Aug 21, 08 12:47 PM CDT
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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, the Times reports. Gergiev is an ethnic Ossetian and close personal friend of Vladimir Putin—they are godfathers of each others’ children—and Putin is expected to be guest of honor. The concert will coincide with rallies declaring South Ossetia independent.
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Wall Street Journal
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Aug 21, 08 9:25 AM CDT
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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 embolden the bear."
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Times (UK)
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Aug 20, 08 5:35 PM CDT
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Syria could host batteries of Russian missiles in return for Russian military technology and the reopening of a Soviet-era naval base on its Mediterranean coast, the Times of London reports. President Bashar al-Assad flew to Moscow today to discuss a deal, which may be Russia’s response to the US-Poland missile defense agreement also signed today.
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Wall Street Journal
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Aug 20, 08 3:41 PM CDT
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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 the same for Kosovo in February, saying Russia wouldn’t “ape” the West.
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New York Times
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Aug 20, 08 1:25 PM CDT
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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 by the recklessness of the Georgian president.”
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Washington Post
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Aug 20, 08 1:09 PM CDT
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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 see lives lost when those verbal checks bounce.
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Wall Street Journal
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Aug 20, 08 10:29 AM CDT
(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. "When the positions of your peacekeepers and the civilian population they have been mandated to protect are shelled, the sources of such attacks are legitimate targets."
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BBC
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Aug 20, 08 8:23 AM CDT
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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 a permanent veto.
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Associated Press
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Aug 20, 08 6:56 AM CDT
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Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski signed a deal today that will put an American missile defense base in Poland, a plan that has provoked increasingly belligerent opposition from Russia. The formal signing comes 6 days after the two countries agreed to the agreement that would locate 10 US interceptor missiles just 115 miles from Russia's border.
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Guardian (UK)
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Aug 19, 08 4:36 PM CDT
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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 going to permit a new line to be drawn in Europe,” said Rice. “There will absolutely be no new line.”
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Boston Globe
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Aug 19, 08 3:45 PM CDT
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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. "The wreckage of Georgia's towns and countryside, however, is not as complete as the ruin of Bush's policies."
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New Yorker
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Aug 19, 08 2:48 PM CDT
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Comparing Vladimir Putin to Hitler and Stalin may invoke nostalgia in aging Cold Warriors, argues David Remnick in the New Yorker , but it ignores the realities of contemporary Russia as well as Putin’s actual motives. The Russian leader has been awaiting the chance to vent his resentment of NATO expansion and American arrogance; Georgia’s invasion of South Ossetia—a poster child for post-Soviet chaos—provided the opportunity. Putin’s an old KGB man, but he’s a pragmatist, not the mortal enemy some “seem to crave.”
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Wall Street Journal
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Aug 19, 08 9:09 AM CDT
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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 before returning to their base in the town of Senaki. The Georgian soldiers were taken away on top of APCs, handcuffed and blindfolded. The port, a keystone of the area’s economy, has been forced to shut down, at least temporarily.
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