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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...

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...

Tit for Tat? Russia Could Station Missiles in Syria

Moscow could regain Mediterranean naval base—and key Cold War relationship

(Newser) - 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...

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...

Rice, Polish Counterpart Sign Missile Defense Deal

But American base is decried by Russia

(Newser) - 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...

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....

Old Cold War Rhetoric Won't Work on the New Putin
Old Cold War Rhetoric Won't Work on the
New Putin
analysis

Old Cold War Rhetoric Won't Work on the New Putin

He's not Hitler or Stalin; his is a 'subtler game'

(Newser) - 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...

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...

Georgian Conflict Highlights Eastern Anxieties

Ex-Soviet states unite in opposition to Russia

(Newser) - As Russian forces continue to roll through Georgia, both Eastern and Western nations are reconsidering their relations in the face of an emboldened and insolent Moscow. The Christian Science Monitor examines this new geopolitical reality from the perspective of ex-Soviet states determined to prevent a renaissance of Russia's hegemony over...

McCain Rips Obama on Defense
 McCain Rips Obama on Defense 

McCain Rips Obama on Defense

Accuses Dem of putting 'political self-interest' over 'national interest'

(Newser) - John McCain blasted Barack Obama’s “shifting positions” on Iraq during a speech before a veterans group today, the New York Times reports. McCain slammed Obama for a vote against troop funding, and anti-surge statements. “Both candidates in this election pledge to end this war and bring our...

Russia's Saber-Rattling Puts NATO Into Rethink Mode

Bolstering neighbors' defenses one option as alliance tries to analyze threat level

(Newser) - The invasion of Georgia has NATO trying to figure out exactly how strong Russia’s rejuvenated military is, and what the alliance should do about it, Gordon Lubold writes in the Christian Science Monitor. It’s clear the military has rebounded from its 1990s malaise, but it doesn’t look...

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