TODAY: Russia and NATO hold first military talks since Georgia incursion; differences remain; OSCE skeptical about security proposals; issues emerge for imminent Obama visit; the Romanovs return
NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer has said that Russia and NATO have resumed cooperation on broad security threats, but 'on Georgia, there are still fundamental differences'. Fears of an incursion in Georgia are building as Russia begins its Caucasus 2009 war games. According to the Washington Post, the military exercises are 'a reminder of the volatility of the region'. Russia's attitude to Georgia has been met with sharp criticism from Western leaders. At a ministerial meeting of the OSCE, opinion was unconvinced about Moscow's proposal for a new security pact; French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner commented, 'we don't need a new structure. We have the principles, we have the structures, let's strengthen them'.
NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer has said that Russia and NATO have resumed cooperation on broad security threats, but 'on Georgia, there are still fundamental differences'. Fears of an incursion in Georgia are building as Russia begins its Caucasus 2009 war games. According to the Washington Post, the military exercises are 'a reminder of the volatility of the region'. Russia's attitude to Georgia has been met with sharp criticism from Western leaders. At a ministerial meeting of the OSCE, opinion was unconvinced about Moscow's proposal for a new security pact; French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner commented, 'we don't need a new structure. We have the principles, we have the structures, let's strengthen them'.
The Federal Drug Control Agency has said that the problem of drug trafficking
in Afghanistan needs to be addressed if transportation of US cargo is to
continue. In a move that has surprised the US military, a high-ranking
Russian general has announced that Russia and the United States will
sign a military cooperation deal during the visit of the US President to Moscow. Admiral Michael Mullen, the chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff, has met with his Russian counterpart, General Nikolai
Makarov, in Moscow and has called the meeting 'encouraging'. The two nations are expected to discuss cyber warfare during
Obama's visit, though their ideas about how to combat the issue differ considerably. The Guardian examines Medvedev's visit to Africa as a sign of his 'policy of disengagement with the West'.
Members of the Romanov royal family intend to return to Russia to help develop charitable programs, but will no longer 'peddle' the idea of the monarchy. The Russian government has told American judges that they do not have the authority to dictate to Russia how to use sacred Jewish documents held in its state library that were seized by the Nazi and Soviet armies. Police detained at least 16 supporters of Mikhail Khodorkovsky in Moscow following an unauthorized rally. Former Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov is ready to testify at the embezzlement trial of the Yukos founder.
PHOTO: Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is seen on a TV screen at a press conference on the Ionian island of Corfu, northwestern Greece, on June 27, 2009, during a NATO-Russia Council. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
Members of the Romanov royal family intend to return to Russia to help develop charitable programs, but will no longer 'peddle' the idea of the monarchy. The Russian government has told American judges that they do not have the authority to dictate to Russia how to use sacred Jewish documents held in its state library that were seized by the Nazi and Soviet armies. Police detained at least 16 supporters of Mikhail Khodorkovsky in Moscow following an unauthorized rally. Former Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov is ready to testify at the embezzlement trial of the Yukos founder.
PHOTO: Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is seen on a TV screen at a press conference on the Ionian island of Corfu, northwestern Greece, on June 27, 2009, during a NATO-Russia Council. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
The trouble with present European security principles and structures is that they are no barrier to Western client states starting wars. This past August, the RF government found both the NATO-Russia Council and the US Security Council unwilling to even consider taking action to stop Georgia's artillery bombardment of Russian peacekeepers.If the West is not prepared to deal with this problem, and there is no indication that they are, then the present European security structures and principles will collapse.
Rkka, what artillery bombardment of Russian peacekeepers? To me, this sounds like preparation to a second invasion of Georgia.
Can you name any war started by a 'client state' of NATO or the EU that wasn't at the same time a post-Soviet state? Is the risk in the former or in the latter?
I refer to the Georgian artillery bombardment of Russian soldiers vicinity Tsinkval beginning the night of 7 August 2008. Prior to undertaking military action on the following day, the Russian government requested a meeting of the NATO-Russian Council, one of the structures of the present European security system. That request was refused by Russia's NATO partners.
Subsequently, the Russian government itself took military action, since no other government seemed to care that the Georgian Armed Forces were killing Russian peacekeepers in South Ossetia.