Avraham's One Village - JEWISH & benei Noach's ONE VILLAGE Barukh haba: News and politics

DER SPIEGEL INTERNATIONAL NEWSLETTER - Wednesday August 20, 2008

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 00:23:03 GMT

DER SPIEGEL

INTERNATIONAL NEWSLETTER

Compiled on August 20, 2008, 06:30 PM CET

UNDER THE SCOPE

Missile Shield Fallout: Poland Risks Serious Confrontation with Russia
The Cold War is returning to Poland. Warsaw wants to further tighten ties with Washington and it has used the US missile defense system to do so -- against massive opposition from Moscow. In return, the Poles will now be given Patriot missiles to protect themselves. mehr...

The Time of the Wimps: Dialogue with Russia Is the Only Choice

SPIEGEL VIEW

Trans-Atlantic Art Spat: European Heirs Demand New York Museums Return Picassos
The heirs of German-Jewish banker Paul von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy are demanding that New York's most important museums hand over two Picassos. But MoMA and the Guggenheim are fighting back, claiming they are now the rightful owners. mehr...

A Clash of Cultures: US and Chinese Superstars Face Off in Beijing

Photo Gallery: US and Chinese Superstars Face Off

NEWS

Disaster in Spain: Madrid Plane Crash Kills At Least 45
A plane crash at a Madrid airport on Wednesday has left at least 45 dead and dozens injured, with rescuers fearing as many as 140 deaths. During takeoff, the Spanair jet bound for the Canary Islands swerved off the end of the runway and broke out into flames. mehr...

Photo Gallery: Catastrophe in Madrid

'What Are the Aims of this War?': French Opposition Demands Rethink of Afghanistan Mission

Spectacular Find in Germany: Dinosaurs May Be Older than First Thought

Wayward Humpback in the Baltic Sea: Greenpeace Prepares to Save 'Bucki'

Photo Gallery: More Photos of an Unusual Visitor

Bribery Scandal Report: Siemens Close to Deal with US Authorities

Mikhail Gorbachev: Russia Never Wanted a War

Empty Beds in China: Olympic Vacancies Haunt Beijing Hotels

FISHWRAP

The World from Berlin: 'NATO Is a Paper Tiger'
A blocked UN resolution, a limited statement by NATO -- the international community has not yet found its voice when it comes to Russia, German commentators write on Wednesday. Moscow, though, may still have a high price to pay. mehr...

SPIEGEL SPECIAL

Farinaceous Food Fight: The Flour Wars of Galaxidi
Every year at the end of Carnival, the Greek village of Galaxidi erupts in a day-long flour war. Goggles and overalls are recommended. mehr...

Photo Gallery: The Great Greek Flour Fight

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Russia gets a pass - The Georgia Hypocrisy (by Steven Plaut)

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 23:46:28 GMT

Russia gets a pass

The Georgia Hypocrisy
By Stephen Plaut

So let’s see if we have this straight.

The entire world is horrified at Russian behavior. The Russians invent a new ‘nation’ in need of self-determination, all as a ploy to break up Georgia. The Russians scream about the mistreatment of the Ossetians and never mind human rights abuses inside Russia, especially in Chechnya. The Russians coordinate moves by separatists inside Georgia to serve as justification for their own invasion. The Russians preach human rights and self-determination as a ploy to engage in aggression. Hmmm, where have we heard that before?

The story brings to mind immediately two historic parallels. The first is the campaign by Nazi Germany on behalf of ’self-determination’ for the Sudeten Germans inside Czechoslovakia in the 1930s. For details see this: http://www.meforum.org/article/459. Germany also invented a ‘people’ in need of self-determination inside the small state it had designs on, invented claims of human rights abuses, and then used the separatist activities of the Sudetens as an excuse to invade and demolish in stages Czechoslovakia. Never mind that human rights were respected a zillion times better inside Czechoslovakia than inside Nazi Germany. Never mind that ethnic Germans already had
their own sovereign countries they could migrate to if they were unhappy in the Sudeten areas of Czechoslovakia.

The other historic parallel concerns the invention of a ‘Palestinian people.’ The Arabs use the ‘Palestinian’ separatist movement the exact same way that Russia uses the Ossetian separatists. The Arabs and their apologists invent tales of ‘human rights abuses’ by Israel of ‘Palestinians’ much like Russia invents stories about Georgian mistreatment of Ossetians. Never mind that the human rights of Arabs inside Israel are respected infinitely better than are those of Arabs inside Arab countries, and the non-Arabs inside Arab countries are treated even worse. The world whines about Israeli ‘apartheid,’ whereas in reality Israel is the only Middle East regime that is NOT an apartheid regime.

In fact, the Georgians did sometimes mistreat the Ossetians and the Ossetians have a far stronger case for self-determination than the ‘Palestinians. The Ossetians speak their own language unrelated to that of their neighbors and have their own culture. In comparison, the ‘Palestinians’ are less different culturally and less distinct linguistically from the Arabs in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria (whence most of them migrated into ‘Palestine’ in the late 19th and early 20th century) than Californians are from other Americans.

If the world is horrified at Russian aggression and behavior towards Georgians, why are so many of these same people not horrified at Arab aggression towards Israel and behavior identical to that of Russia? Why are those who pooh-pooh the claims of a right to self-determination by Ossetians not dismissing as a similar Sudeten-style ploy the demands for ‘Palestinian self-determination?’ Why are Palestinians, who enjoy treatment far better than that of the Ossetians and the Chechens, the focus of countless media exposes about their imaginary mistreatment by Israel?

And where are all those solidarity protesters? How come the same ‘International Solidarity Movement’ protesters who like to attack Israeli troops and police and to serve as ‘human shields’ to protect the po’ Palestinian ‘victims’ of Israeli self-defense not rushing to Ossetia and Georgia to stand up to the Russian troops, throwing rocks at them and singing Kun-Ba-Ya? Where are the leftist human shield blocking Russian (and Georgian) military vehicles the same way they block Israeli
Defense Forces operations? Are they afraid they will not be served the same nice gourmet lattes they get when Israeli forces apprehend them for hooliganism in the West Bank?

Why are the leftists not organizing ships to break the Russian blockade of the Georgia coast the same way they are trying to provide sea-borne aid to the Hamas in Gaza? Where are the Rachel Corries and why are they not challenging Russian bulldozer crews? Why are the Anarchists against the Wall not hopping planes to Tbilisi to challenge Russian construction crews erecting walls in Abkhazia and Ossetia? Why are the Israeli leftist professors not holding pro-Ossetian poetry readings and solidarity rallies in Tbilisi?

Leftist hypocrisy seems to have no limits!
—————————————————————-
Ami Isseroff in Georgia on my Mind points out the obvious
What is left is an observation about what is missing following the Russian invasion of Georgia. A super-power invaded a tiny state on a very slim pretext. Georgia, after all, did not encroach on Russian sovereignty or threaten the existence of Russia in any way. Russians admit that South Ossetia is Georgian territory.

In their brutal invasion, the Russians committed numerous war crimes, killed civilians indiscriminately, dropped cluster bombs on civilian targets, all to combat a country which had done them no harm. Yet the UN and the large human rights organizations have been more or less silent about these atrocities. The media are not full of op-eds by so-called “liberals” calling for the dismemberment of Russia because the state was founded based on a mistake. Nobody is branding Russia as a chronic violator of human rights. The question of proportionality is hardly even raised. This silence is in marked contrast to the hysterical condemnations of Israel that accompanied and followed the Second Lebanon War. What is more interesting, is that many of the same folks who led the bandwagon against Israel in 2006, are now busy finding every possible excuse to “justify” the Russian barbarity.
http://www.israpundit.com/2008/?p=2102

Aliyah Under Fire: Young Girl Immigrates from War-Torn Georgia (by Gil Ronen)

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 00:20:34 GMT

Aliyah Under Fire: Young Girl Immigrates from War-Torn Georgia

by Gil Ronen

The State of Israel was the only nation that evacuated all of its citizens from the war zone in Georgia, and the planes from Tbilisi also brought the Jewish state dozens of new immigrants.

[video:123378]
Can't see video? click here for interview with Maya

One of the new immigrants, Maya Gogyashvili, described the situation to IsraelNationalNews: "Lots of bombs, they are throwing lots of bombs. Bombing Gori and around Gori, the villages... It's a very bad situation. Lots of people are killed and died. Soldiers. I'm very sad, you know, when I am thinking about soldiers I always want to cry."

Maya's parents made arrangements for her and her sister to board the plane to Israel but stayed behind and are now in Tbilisi. She now is making plans to study Hebrew.

"In Gori there were lots of Jewish families, maybe 200 people, maybe more," Gogyashvili estimated. "Every Friday my father was going to synagogue ...

DER SPIEGEL INTERNATIONAL NEWSLETTER - Tuesday August 19, 2008

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 23:42:16 GMT

DER SPIEGEL

INTERNATIONAL NEWSLETTER

Compiled on August 19, 2008, 06:18 PM CET

UNDER THE SCOPE

Altruism or Exploitation? Big Finance Muscles In on Microlending
Microloans were invented to help the poorest of the poor help themselves. Now major banks and pension funds are getting into the business, as they discover that the interest paid by the poor can produce high returns. Is it aid or exploitation? mehr...

Serbia Wary: UN Begins Transfer of Kosovo Authority to EU

West Wing: Learning from Kennedy

SPIEGEL VIEW

Rogge's Silence: The Phantoms of the Beijing Opera
There was once a hope that sports would trump politics during the Olympics. But the Chinese police continue to arrest citizens who register to stage demonstrations. IOC President Jacques Rogge is in charge of a show over which he has long since lost control. mehr...

Photo Gallery: Securing the Olympics

Caught in the Undertow: British Families, Drowning in Debt

NEWS

Grisly Find: 2,000 Bodies Discovered in Berlin Medieval Cemetery
Archaelogists have made a grisly, fascinating discovery in central Berlin -- a giant medieval graveyard containing 2,000 corpses, many of them children. mehr...

Fighting in Afghanistan: 10 French Soldiers Killed in Taliban Ambush

Reaction to Georgia: Half of Poles Fear Russian Attack

Divided West: NATO Set to Blast Georgia Invasion as 'Disproprotionate'

David Brooks: The Education of McCain

Picture This: Attack in Afghanistan

FISHWRAP

The World from Berlin: 'With Musharraf, a Scapegoat Leaves the World Stage'
Pakistan is without Musharraf for the first time in nine years. German commentators on Tuesday asks whether the fractious coalition government will be any better at dealing with the country's daunting problems, including a floundering economy and militant Islamists. And will the West be able to help keep the nuclear state stable? mehr...

Photo Gallery: The General's Retreat

SPIEGEL SPECIAL

Farinaceous Food Fight: The Flour Wars of Galaxidi
Every year at the end of Carnival, the Greek village of Galaxidi erupts in a day-long flour war. Goggles and overalls are recommended. mehr...

Photo Gallery: The Great Greek Flour Fight

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DER SPIEGEL INTERNATIONAL NEWSLETTER - Monday August 18, 2008

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 18:17:47 GMT

DER SPIEGEL

INTERNATIONAL NEWSLETTER

Compiled on August 18, 2008, 06:26 PM CET

UNDER THE SCOPE

The Dangerous Neighbor: Vladimir Putin Takes on a Powerless West
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin approached the crisis in Georgia coolly and efficiently, prompting admiration even from some American observers. But Moscow's brutal strike against Georgian President Saakashvili has divided the Western world, with the split running straight through the Euroean Union. mehr...

Photo Gallery: Destruction, Desperation and Hope

Photo Gallery: Suffering after the End of the War

Eco-Clubbing: Dutch Club to Recycle Dancers' Energy

SPIEGEL VIEW

SPIEGEL Interview with Gerhard Schröder: 'Serious Mistakes by the West'
Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder discusses the war in the Caucasus, the possibility of Germany serving as an intermediary in the conflict and his belief in a constructive role for Russia. mehr...

Germany and the Caucasus Conflict: Merkel's Most Serious Foreign Policy Crisis

NEWS

Avoiding Impeachment in Pakistan: President Musharraf Announces Resignation
Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf has given in to pressure to resign before being impeached by parliament. He told the nation in a live TV address that he was leaving his future "in the hands of the nation." mehr...

Germany's Loon Problem: Seabird Endangers Emissions Reduction Target

Ashes to Ashes: German Undertakers Accused of Killing, Cremating, Scattering Rival

'An Act of Intolerance and Homophobia': Berlin Mayor Condemns Attack on Gay Memorial

Expensive Travel: German Minister Under Fire for Taking Costly Flight

Upswing in US Smart Buys: Daimler's Smart Car Hits Cruising Speed

William Kristol: Showdown at Saddleback

Picture This: Eyes on the Prize

FISHWRAP

The World From Berlin: Müntefering Comeback Seen Unlikely to Revive SPD
Can former Social Democrat leader Franz Müntefering save the party? As badly as the SPD needs help, the hopes being pinned on his comeback reveal the extent of the party's desperation, say commentators. mehr...

www.spiegel.de/international

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West struggles to find safe footing on Georgia (by Steven Erlanger)

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 17:41:51 GMT

West struggles to find safe footing on Georgia

By Steven Erlanger

Sunday, August 17, 2008

PARIS: NATO foreign ministers are to gather Tuesday for an emergency meeting on the Russia-Georgia crisis, with the United States looking for more than symbolic gestures, Europe divided and arguments rampant over how to deal with Ukraine.

Russia has now signed a cease-fire agreement negotiated by President Nicolas Sarkozy of France and amended by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, but Moscow is not rushing to implement its terms. American anger and European suasion are having little effect, with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin of Russia getting significant mileage at home from his proud disinterest in Western criticism.

On Sunday, President Dmitri Medvedev of Russia announced that Moscow would begin to withdraw its troops from Georgia on Monday, the day before the NATO meeting. Sarkozy told Medvedev that there would be "serious consequences" for relations between Russia and the European Union if Russian compliance with the accord was not rapid and complete, the French president's office said. (Page 4)

But no one expects the Russians to pull out of the ethnic-Russian enclaves they occupied, South Ossetia and Abkhazia, making the cease-fire seem hollow.

Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, having met Medvedev on Friday in Sochi in Russia, went to Tbilisi on Sunday to give support to Georgia, saying that "Georgia will become a member of NATO" eventually, as NATO promised in April at its last summit meeting. Then, Berlin and Washington worked out a compromise - an undated promise of future membership - after Germany, France and Italy said that neither Georgia nor Ukraine were ready to join a Membership Action Plan for NATO, the first step required, and one fiercely opposed by Moscow.

On Sunday, Merkel said she held to her view that it is too early to implement the Membership Action Plan for Georgia and Ukraine, even though Washington would like to accelerate it for both of them.

The differences show how hard it is for NATO and Europe to find significant and concrete leverage on Moscow, with the Bush Administration on its last legs and many in Europe blaming the Georgian leadership - supposedly made unrealistic by overenthusiastic American support - as much for the crisis as they do Putin.

"The big Western debate is whether this is about Georgia or Russia," said Ronald Asmus, director of the Brussels Transatlantic Center of the German Marshall Fund. "Those who want to contain the damage say that Georgia is a little country, partly to blame, and not worth the confrontation with Moscow. Then there are those who say this is really about Russia and the rules of the game for Europe writ large, for the Caspian energy corridor and the right of small countries to choose their own path."

The European dilemma is clear, said Clifford Kupchan, a director of the Eurasia Group in Washington. "How do they square their increasing energy dependence on Russia with their increasing political discomfort with Putin? It's a very hard circle to square," he said.

There are of course the divisions between "old and new Europe" - roughly Western and Eastern Europe, Kupchan said, with new Europe, backed by Britain and Scandinavia, taking a harder line toward Russia, while old Europe "will only be reinforced in its view that Georgia and Ukraine are not ready for NATO."

After Russia's behavior, said Jacques Rupnik, a political scientist and Eastern Europe expert at the Paris Institute of Political Studies, "there is little disagreement now in Europe about the nature of the new Russia."

Those Europeans "who didn't get it before are getting it now," Rupnik said. But Europe is divided about what to do about Russia, taking comfort, as usual, "in the idea of mediating between Washington and Moscow."

This is not Europe's fight, said Stefan Kornelius, foreign editor and columnist for Süddeustche Zeitung. "Europe is torn between old and new Europe. But I don't see Europe prepared to go to war with itself over Georgia. The European foreign ministers sense this is too big for them, and they will in the end align themselves with the United States, while trying to affect policy."

The Americans are looking for concrete gestures to punish and warn Russia - perhaps suspending or even canceling the NATO-Russian Council, or as Asmus, formerly a senior State Department official in the Clinton Administration suggested, "fast-tracking NATO membership for Ukraine."

NATO could also begin formal defense planning, including putting in military infrastructure, to defend new NATO members like the Baltic nations and Poland against even a hypothetical war with Russia.

As a gesture to the Russia of President Boris Yeltsin, who grudgingly accepted NATO expansion, Asmus said: "NATO never developed military plans to defend Central and Eastern Europeans, because we said, 'Russia's not an enemy and not a threat,' and we never backed up the new members with exercises and infrastructure."

The Germans opposed such moves at the time, and then-Chancellor Gerhard Schröder of Germany and Jacques Chirac, then the president of France, were considered a kind of pro-Russian axis in NATO. Both are gone, replaced by more pro-American and more viscerally anti-communist leaders in Merkel and Sarkozy.

But France, Germany and Italy remain deeply dependent on Russian energy. Sarkozy, with France as the current European Union president, is eager to mediate between Washington and Moscow, and Merkel is in a grand coalition with the left. Her foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeyer, a Social Democrat and close aide to Schröder, is considered very friendly toward Moscow. In an interview published Sunday, he urged the West against "knee-jerk reaction" like suspending EU-Russia talks on strategic cooperation or banning Russia from the World Trade Organization.

Russia will probably pull out of Georgia at its own speed - but it will be their own definition of Georgia, which does not, apparently, include South Ossetia and Abkhazia, where they have distributed Russian passports. Few believe they will leave those ethnic enclaves, even if they redefine their own occupation troops as "peacekeepers," let alone allow regions to be controlled by the Tbilisi government.

Even if the formal borders of Georgia remain unchanged for now, in the long run Russia will have been seen to expand. "Russia has never been a nation-state, but always an empire, with Moskovy gradually expanding its borders since the 15th century," Rupnik said. "Russia built a state as it built its empire - the two were inseparable."

The Russian Federation was never a state in its current borders, and more than 25 million Russians live outside it, mostly in the former Soviet Union. "These new borders are new and somewhat artificial," Rupnik said. "And we in the West never fully measured the effect of this loss of empire on the Russians, or how integral Ukraine is to the Russian sense of self."

The Orange Revolution in Ukraine, which Moscow failed to stop, "was the real wake-up call for Putin," Rupnik said. "The Russian conclusion then, and it's widely shared there, is that the limit has been reached - no more concessions, a push for rollback and definitely no Georgia and no Ukraine in NATO."

Ukraine has its own in-built ethnic Russian enclaves in the east and in Crimea - the home of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, which was handed to Ukraine as a sort of anniversary present in 1954 by the Ukrainian-born Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev. Like Ossetia, split by Stalin so that North Ossetia is in Russia and South Ossetia is in Georgia, Crimea is a kind of poison pill to keep Ukraine in line, one supported by nearly total energy dependency on Russia.

That is why, for observers like Asmus, NATO's response to Russia's actions in Georgia should involve Ukraine.

But that is also why many Europeans do not want to commit to defending another Russian neighbor when they have neither the will nor the means to enforce that commitment.

Since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, there have been numerous border changes in Europe - most recently in Kosovo, the example Putin has used to defend Russia's assault on Georgia.

"We are still in the process of building and making states," Rupnik said. "The map is not finished."

http://www.iht.com/bin/printfriendly.php?id=15370760

Georgia conflict: Condoleezza Rice toughens stance towards Russia (by Alex Spillius and Adrian Blomfield)

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 17:39:32 GMT

Georgia conflict: Condoleezza Rice toughens stance towards Russia

Washington has toughened its stance towards Russia as it sought to limit the damage to its prestige over the crisis in Georgia.

By Alex Spillius in Washington and Adrian Blomfield in Gori
Last Updated: 11:14PM BST 17 Aug 2008

On the defensive after criticism that its response to the crisis has failed to stop Russia from prolonging its military operations in Georgia, the Bush administration lashed out at Moscow. Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, said that Russia's reputation was now "in tatters".

But this did not stop Russia from searching for a fresh pretext to extend its occupation of Georgian territory. While President Dmitry Medvedev announced that a troop withdrawal would finally begin on Monday, a spokesman for the Russian defence ministry later accused Georgia of preparing "a major provocative act" in the strategic town of Gori.

Miss Rice, who is to leave Washington for Brussels on Monday for an emergency Nato summit, called on Mr Medvedev to ensure that he carries out his latest promise.

"I hope this time he will keep his word," she said.

"Russia's reputation as a potential partner in international institutions, diplomatic, political, security, economic, is frankly, in tatters.

She added: "Russia will pay a price. We will look seriously with our allies and bilaterally at the consequences of this Russian action ... Georgia will rebuild, Russia's reputation may not be rebuilt."

Her comments followed criticism that under Miss Rice's stewardship American foreign policy has suffered a major embarrassment, having failed to spot the Russian invasion or to force its end.

The incident has been described by one think tank as the "foreign policy equivalent of Hurricane Katrina", after the woefully mismanaged response to the 2005 national disaster in Louisiana.

Though Ms Rice said Russia would "pay a price" for its actions, she has discussed the idea of throwing Russia out of the G8 group of industrialised nations, or of fast-tracking Nato membership of Georgia and Ukraine, another former Soviet Union territory under threat from its former master.

Likewise George W Bush also stiffened his language towards Moscow on Saturday, but failed to suggest a specific measure. On Sunday he failed to mention the crisis at all, simply praising the achievements of the American Olympic swimming hero Michael Phelps.

Renewed Russian hostility has been a particular embarrassment for the US president who early in his administration publicly placed his trust in Vladimir Putin.

In a sign of the frustration felt at home, two US Congressmen have tabled a draft resolution urging the International Olympic Committee to punish Russia by moving the 2014 Winter Olympics out of Sochi, a Black Sea resort in Russia.

Allyson Schwartz and Bill Shuster, members of the House of Representatives Georgia caucus, said they plan to file a resolution declaring that Russia's movement of troops into Georgia on the eve of the Beijing Olympics makes it an unacceptable country to host the games.

John Bolton, a former US ambassador to the United Nations renowned as a foreign policy "hawk", said that having mismanaged the crisis so far, the Bush administration should not let Russia go unpunished if it stuck to its promise of withdrawing troops.

He said that Miss Rice remained in control of foreign policy, which she has steered back towards a traditional diplomatic approach her critics decry as weak.

"She has been the dominant voice in the entire Bush second term on any issue of importance and I don't know why that differ now, unless the president seizes the reins. But I don't see any evidence of that happening," he said.

As the Russian occupation continued on Sunday, the defence ministry in Moscow claimed to have uncovered a Georgian plot to send undercover mercenaries, Ukrainians and Chechens among them, into the strategic town of Gori.

"They will be dressed in Russian military uniform and let go in Gori, where these bands will loot and pillage the local residents," a spokesman for the ministry said.

"This will be filmed by television cameras and then presented to the world as an atrocity of the Russian war machine."

Georgian officials had earlier made similar claims about the Russians. They alleged that Russian soldiers had stolen Georgian uniforms as part of an unspecified plot to make Georgia look as though it had broken the ceasefire.

The mutual allegations of subterfuge and conspiracy have again underscored how fragile the French-brokered truce between the two countries is.

The Georgian government of President Mikheil Saakashvili meanwhile received a modest boost for the country's Nato ambitions when Angela Merkel, the visiting German chancellor, indicated that Georgia's membership hopes were not dead.

"In December, we will have a first evaluation of the situation and we are on a clear path in the direction of Nato membership," she said.

Georgia's desire to join Nato has infuriated Moscow and played a major role in causing the war. Despite Mrs Merkel's encouragement, most analysts say that the conflict over South Ossetia has all but ended the likelihood of Georgia joining the alliance, with many western European countries, particularly Italy, likely to oppose the bid in an attempt to mollify the Kremlin.

Russia has so far shown little sign of bowing to western pressure to withdraw from Georgia, despite threats from the United States of international isolation.

If anything, Russia's stranglehold of Georgia has tightened. Russian troops entered the towns of Khashuri and Akhalgori for the first time on Sunday, while their troops elsewhere in the country showed signs of digging themselves in.

Russian soldiers, now within just 25 miles of Tbilisi, set up six checkpoints on the road to Gori, which lies 15 miles south of the Ossetian border, while tanks entrenched themselves deep into the countryside.

Fields on either side of the road were set ablaze to deny cover to Georgian military hardware.

A railway bridge on the main line connecting Georgia to its neighbours was also blown up over the weekend, essentially severing the last route for freight and trade in the country after Russian soldiers also took control of the country's main east-west highway.

A former White House official said: "The United States is not going to go to war with Russia over the borders of South Ossetia and so the tools available to us are largely diplomatic. For all those critics who claim the Administration has not relied sufficiently on diplomacy, this is what it looks like when there are few good military options and one has to rely primarily on diplomacy.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/georgia/2575486/Georgia-conflict-Condoleezza-Rice-toughens-stance-towards-Russia.html

Georgia: Russian military entrench themselves deeper (by Adrian Blomfield)

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 17:37:33 GMT

Georgia: Russian military entrench themselves deeper

Far from pulling out, Russian military units are entrenching themselves in new positions deeper into Georgia.

By Adrian Blomfield in Gori
Last Updated: 11:34PM BST 17 Aug 2008

A Russian soldier patrolling on the outskirts of Gori: the Georgian town remains under occupation for a fifth day Photo: REUTERS

Trenches have been dug and tanks, camouflaged with tree branches, are scattered through fields and in forests ever closer to the Georgian capital Tbilisi.

In the town of Gori, under occupation for a fifth day, residents are cut off from the outside world and running short of food. Orthodox priests handed out a loaf of bread to each of the few remaining residents in the eerily deserted town.

"When is it going to stop?" said Rusudan Kardzikidze, a 78-year-old pensioner. "When are they going to leave?"

Justified by Russian claims of atrocities committed by Georgia in the provocative advance through breakaway South Ossetia that provoked the conflict, the reprisals in Gori have been swift and brutal.

Guja Chumburidze, an unemployed 26-year-old resident, was one of those who fell victim to the wrath of rampaging South Ossetian irregulars, who were able to enter the town as their Russian allies advanced into undisputed Georgian territory.

With his two-month-old son and his ageing mother Iamze, Guja cowered in his home on the outskirts of Gori, listening to the sounds of breaking glass and bursts of gunfire as the irregulars embarked on drunken looting sprees.

Then everything went quiet. Refusing to listen to the pleas of his mother, Guja ventured outside to see if it was safe to look for food.

Within seconds, he was stopped by a gang of looters. They had seen him, they said, on the streets of Tskhinvali, the Ossetian capital. He was a war criminal and a looter and there was only one punishment for looters and war criminals.

"They beat him until he fell to the ground," said Iamze, who had rushed onto the street to plead for her son's life. "They shot him in the back of the head."

Most of the Ossetians, as well as the Chechen irregulars who joined them, were more interested in pillaging, as evidenced by smashed in windows of Gori's shops, restaurants and banks or robbing motorists of their cars at gunpoint. South Ossetia has long doubled as Georgia's principal stolen car market.

But many, according to witnesses whose accounts have yet to be verified, also went house-to-house in Georgian villages, both in South Ossetia and outside the breakaway province, on raping and murdering sprees.

Last week, until orders came from Moscow to rein them in, the Russian troops occupying Georgian territory either did little to stop the irregulars from looting or committing atrocities or actively encouraged them.

Manning a checkpoint outside the Georgian town of Kaspi, 25 miles southeast of Gori, four young Chechen soldiers admitted that their South Ossetian allies had carried out reprisals against Georgian civilians - but insisted they were justified.

"Do you know what the Georgians did in Tskhinvali," demanded one fighter, who identified himself as Sulim. "They killed 2,000 people. Georgians were crushing small children with their tanks."

From the beginning of hostilities, officials in Moscow were quick to declare that "genocide" was taking place and that up to 2,000 people had been killed in attacks deliberately aimed at Tskhinvali's civilian population.

Vladimir Putin, the prime minister, went on television to claim that Georgian tanks were crushing children and Georgian soldiers were beheading civilians.

Yet the first independent human rights activists attempting to calculate the civilian death toll have so far only been able to confirm the deaths of 44 people according to records from Tskhinvali's only hospital.

According to Human Rights Watch, the respected New York-based body, the Kremlin's deliberate exaggeration of the civilian death toll was inevitably contributing to the scale of reprisals against Georgians.

Asked whether he had personally seen any children crushed by Georgian tanks, Sulim replied: "No, but I heard Putin say it so it must be true."

Russian propaganda has been so convincing that not even the few independent media outlets that normally criticise the Kremlin in Russia have spoken out against the Georgia war.

Instead, many Russians believe that the West has rushed to support Georgia, despite the fact that President Mikheil Saakashvili is, in their eyes, guilty of genocide.

Sulim and his fellow fighters are convinced that Ukrainians, Estonians and even Chinese and westerners were fighting against them in South Ossetia. They claimed that dents in the front of their tank were caused by a bomb dropped from an American jet.

Believing that the world is against them but that right is on their side, the Russian people are convinced that, ceasefire or no ceasefire, their army must stay in Georgia for as long as is necessary.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/georgia/2575214/Georgia-Russian-military-entrench-themselves-deeper.html

Merkel backing for Georgia

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 17:34:46 GMT

Published:Aug 18, 2008

Merkel backing for Georgia

GERMANY’S Chancellor Angela Merkel ssured Georgia yesterday that it would join Nato as she strongly backed the former Soviet republic in its conflict with Russia.

“Georgia will become a member of Nato if it wants to — and it does want to,” she told reporters before talks with Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili in the capital, Tbilisi.

It was one of the strongest statements of support yet for Georgia’s Nato membership bid, which is fiercely opposed by Russia.

Merkel was in Tbilisi to support Saakashvili and press for the withdrawal of Russian troops who attacked Georgia on August 8 to repulse an offensive by Georgian troops to regain control of a Moscow-backed separatist region, South Ossetia.

She was the latest world leader to visit Georgia — which has repeatedly appealed for Western support — after trips by French president Nicolas Sarkozy and US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice.

On Friday, Merkel held talks with Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, who later, at a frosty news conference, asserted that Moscow was “the guarantor of security” in the Caucasus.

Merkel also tried to reassure Georgia about Russia’s right, under a ceasefire agreed earlier this week, to take “additional security measures” outside the South Ossetia conflict zone.

This phrasing — the most contentious issue in the EU-brokered six-point ceasefire deal — has raised fears in Tbilisi that Russia could maintain a long-term troop presence deep inside the country.

“The security zone is temporary. This is not disputed by any of the parties,” said Merkel. She urged the rapid deployment of monitors from the Organisation of Security and Co-operation in Europe.

“It is more important that foreign observers arrive, so it is not only troops of the [Russian dominated] Commonwealth of Independent States [in Georgia],” she said

Yesterday, Russian troops remained deployed in the north and west of Georgia, including units within half an hour’s drive of Tbilisi. Russia says its forces will begin withdrawing today, but that an unspecified number of Russian “peacekeepers” will remain.

ý Forest fires in a national park, which Georgia accuses Russian forces of starting deliberately, were still burning yesterday. — Sapa, AFP and Reutershttp://www.thetimes.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=824326

Georgia: More trouble in the pipeline

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 17:21:39 GMT

Georgia: More trouble in the pipeline

Last Updated: 12:18am BST 17/08/2008

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The crisis in Georgia has focused minds on the supply of oil to western Europe via lines that cross - and avoid - Russia. Russell Hotten considers the prospects for the embattled democracy

The sight of bombed-out buildings and Russian tanks descending on villages in Georgia has underlined that for all its investment potential, this vast stretch of the globe remains a powder keg. Moscow has not just sent a message to several former Soviet states not to step out of line, it has sent a signal to Europe about the fragility and security of its economic interests.

Television pictures of Georgians fleeing the fighting brought forth international condemnation. But less publicised were the Russian missile strikes near the Baku- Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline, one of several arteries in the the Caucasus that bring oil and gas to the west.

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Some 50 missiles struck within a few hundred metres of this key oil transit route. There is no evidence that the Russians intended to hit the BTC, which is 30 per cent-owned by BP, the UK energy major. But it was a salutary warning at a time when the European Union is desperate to reduce its dependency on Russian oil and gas.

The 1,100-mile pipeline, which ships about 90,000 barrels per day and from next year will have capacity for 1.2m barrels per day, is one of the few pipelines from the Caspian region not to cross Russian soil. It ships high-quality crude from eastern Azerbaijan,through Georgia, to the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan. It is the longest pipeline after Druzhba, which stretches 2,500 miles from south-eastern Russia to Germany.

The pipeline has, in fact, been shut for more than a week due to a fire in eastern Turkey, and should re-open in the next few weeks. The Kurdistan Workers Party claimed it sabotaged the facility, though there are doubts that this was the case. According to Samuel Ciszuk, an analyst at Global Insight: "The entire route of the BTC, the only major oil pipeline from the Caspian region outside of Russia's control, should now be treated as high-risk, and Turkey's viability as an energy bridge to Europe has been thrown into question."

It is likely that the pipeline would have had to shut anyway, due to the closeness of the Russian bombing. Last week BP closed its much smaller Baku-Suspa oil and gas pipeline, which was carrying between 45,000 and 90,000 barrels per day, as a precautionary measure.

The section of the pipeline running from near Tbilisi, Georgia's capital, to Turkey, was re-opened on Friday, but the oil pipeline remained shut this weekend.

Reports by Turkish newspapers said BP and its Turkish partner Botas International were examining the pipeline this weekend to assess how long repairs will take.

As well as shipping oil from Azerbaijan, the Black Sea ports of Poti and Batumi are also vital transit points for crude from Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. Estimates from oil traders suggest that the amount of oil now being shipped from these three countries had fallen from 1.3m barrels a day to about 350,000.

It would take a sharp escalation of the Georgia conflict to close the transit routes long term, which is why the oil price remained relatively muted in response to Russia's invasion. A lot of oil was re-routed by road tanker. The Kremlin, though, will be privately very pleased to have exposed the fragility of the supply network.

More on oil

Dieter Helm, an energy economist and professor at Oxford University, said last week: "Russia has a very clear strategy and would prefer Europe's gas to go via Russia and not via independent countries. There is no definite attempt [by Russia] to disrupt supplies. But it is not unhelpful to Russia that there is unrest."

Russia is no longer a military superpower, but its vast natural resources mean it will become an energy superpower over the next decade. Russia's state energy giant, Gazprom, produces 85 per cent of the country's natural gas and controls 17 per cent of the world's reserves. The European Union gets 25 per cent of its gas from Russia, and that is set to rise. Britain's proposal to build a new generation of nuclear power stations is a race to diversify energy supplies and reduce dependency on Russia and the Middle East.

But until these reactors start coming on stream, from 2017 at the earliest, Britain, with its North Sea reserves dwindling fast, will have to look to places like Kazakhstan if it wants alternatives to Russia. That country's giant Kashagan oil field, which is being developed by a consortium that includes Royal Dutch Shell and ExxonMobil, was the largest find for three decades when it was discovered in 2000, and will use the BTC pipeline once production begins in 2013. But will Russia resist the urge to try to control these reserves? At the very least Moscow will surely want influence over such a powerful geopolitical resource.

The BTC pipeline cost $3bn (£1.5bn) to build, but Ciszuk believes that the Georgian troubles will dampen investors' enthusiasm for pumping hundreds of millions of pounds more into a planned upgrade. Indeed, he says that the pipeline's vulnerability "could render further foreign investment in [any] oil and gas transport links that bypass Russia too risky".

The proposed 2,000-mile Nabucco pipeline, backed by the European Union and running through Georgia, would bypass Russia and take gas via Turkey and Bulgaria to Austria. Moscow has tried to persuade its European gas customers that Nabucco is a red herring and that investors should concentrate on backing pipelines running through Russia. If diplomacy has failed to convince these investors, military action in Georgia may do. Nick Butler, a former chief strategy director at BP and director of energy studies at Cambridge University, says that there is no question that Georgia has "become an investment risk".

Helm and other supporters of Nabucco say the answer is not to shelve the project, but to ensure that governments, not private investors, take the lead and defend it. But Gazprom, through its many strategic ventures with European energy companies, now wields considerable lobbying power in Europe's capitalhttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/core/Content/displayPrintable.jhtml;jsessionid=ZPCD3CHX0DC4BQFIQMGSFF4AVCBQWIV0?xml=/money/2008/08/17/ccgeorg117.xml&site=1&page=0

[Stratfor Today] Belarus: Lukashenko after the Georgian Invasion

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 17:19:17 GMT

Belarus: Lukashenko after the Georgian Invasion

Stratfor Today » August 15, 2008 | 2129 GMT

VLADIMIR RODIONOV/AFP/Getty Images

Russian President Dmitri Medvedev (L) and Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko

Summary

Like other Former Soviet countries, Belarus is reassessing its relationship with Russia and the West after Moscow’s conflict with Georgia. While not long ago Minsk may have entertained the idea of gradually opening up to the West, the Georgian example will drive it back forcefully into the Kremlin’s orbit.

Analysis

Belarus, the only ex-Soviet country to have survived the Union’s collapse without major political and economic renovation, is reassessing its relationship with Russia in the aftermath of Moscow’s recent conflict with Georgia.

Though isolated, Belarus already has exceedingly strong ties with Russia. The Georgian example will persuade Belarus’ autocratic president, Aleksandr Lukashenko, that whole-hearted pandering to Russia is the only way he can maintain his position of power.

The geopolitical ties between Belarus and Russian are indissoluble. Belarus borders Russia, relies on it for military protection, and depends on Russian consumers for the success of its agricultural and manufacturing sectors. Without Russia’s military, economic and political backing, Lukashenko would fall — and Belarus might not even survive in its current form. Belarus and Russia were unified under the Soviet flag, and since the Soviet Union’s collapse they have spoken frequently of forming a “union state.”

Nevertheless, a rift exists between Belarus and Russia that is not immediately visible. Belarus’ attempts at full partnership with Russia are often rebuffed, and many Belarusians feel that they are viewed as ethnically inferior. In 2007, disputes broke out over energy prices between Belarus and Russian state-run energy giant Gazprom and Russian state-owned distributor Transneft. Lukashenko has leveled criticisms at Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. In short, though Belarus appears pro-Russian, it is ruled with an iron fist by Lukashenko, an opportunist loyal only to himself and constantly wary of his enemies both in the Kremlin and in the West.

Lukashenko’s ties to the Kremlin are complicated. He once hoped to become former Russian President Boris Yeltsin’s successor using his high-level contacts and his ability to unite both Russian and Belarusian nationalists and unrepentant communists. These groups won Belarus massive Soviet-style subsidies from Russia, notably keeping energy prices low. This enabled Minsk to weather the transition into the 21st century without complete economic overhaul. With Russian financial backing, Lukashenko remained in power and relatively popular, in great part preserving the old collectivist structures that Minsk inherited from its Soviet past.

But in 2000, Putin assumed the Russian presidency, upstaging Lukashenko, whose reputation subsequently diminished. Since then, the Kremlin has occasionally defended Belarus against Western political criticisms, but in turn it expects Minsk to serve as a regional pro-Russian mouthpiece. Lukashenko resents Putin for upstaging him, and keeps a close watch for signs the Kremlin might turn against him.

Lukashenko remains in this precarious situation, isolated and without allies other than Russia, but with desperate yearnings for more independence. Minsk could only reduce its dependence on Moscow by launching a series of far-reaching reforms, bringing itself more in alignment with Europe and the West. But aside from being rendered almost impossible by geopolitical realities, such a process would generate social instability and almost assuredly lead to Lukashenko’s overthrow. While Central European states like Poland and the Baltics would love to have Belarus join the Euro club, they want Lukashenko and the remnants of the Soviet-era government thrown out of power first, which obviously disposes the Belarusian president against courting their favor and support. Lukashenko is thus in a tough position, and has therefore played the role of Kremlin cheerleader while furtively looking for a chance to form connections with those outsiders who do not seek to undermine his regime.

In June Lukashenko got a hint of a chance. Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, a high-ranking Vatican official, visited Minsk and spoke of improving relations. There was even talk of the pope visiting in the fall. Lukashenko smiled on the Vatican’s approaches, knowing full well that the Roman Catholic Church offers a broad avenue to the Western world. Minsk’s opening a line to the pope carries unmistakable resonances of change in former Soviet Union countries – after all, the church’s proliferation in Poland steadily subverted communist doctrine for decades.

Needless to say, it was not long until Russia’s Orthodox Church — and the Kremlin’s Federal Security Service (FSB), which has connections to the Patriarchate — discovered the potential Vatican inroads in its backyard. Of course, Russia has always been paranoid about its interests in Belarus, which it sees as a crucial buffer zone separating the Russian heartland from its Western rivals. The possibility of the Roman Catholic Church sowing seeds of dissent in this territory only heightened Kremlin paranoia.

On Aug. 12, the day Russian President Dmitri Medvedev ordered the Russian army to stop its advance into Georgia, Russian Ambassador to Belarus Alexander Surikov criticized Minsk for not lending more vocal support to Moscow throughout the conflict. Minsk has long served as propagandist and provocateur on the Russians’ behalf, but at this most crucial time it seemed to be holding its tongue. Surikov claimed that Russia was “perplexed” by the Belarusian silence on the issue, alluding to the countries’ special relationship (meaning Russian beneficence) and insisting that Belarus speak in open approval of Moscow’s military operations in the Caucasus. A chastened Belarus responded by officially praising Russia’s actions, denouncing Georgian aggression and lending humanitarian aid to the separatist Georgian region of South Ossetia. Belarus’ loud cheer for Moscow, following its conspicuous silence, aptly characterizes the country’s ambivalent relationship with its domineering neighbor.

Like other former Soviet countries, Belarus is adjusting to the uncomfortable reality represented by Moscow’s invasion of South Ossetia. The world now knows that the Russian army has not only the operational capability but also the willingness to deploy forces and secure neighboring regions from Western incursion. Lukashenko can no longer entertain the possibility of gradually opening up to the West, whether through the Vatican or by any other means. Rather, he will have to return to playing the role of Moscow’s chief lackey. If he does not, he could suffer worse than harsh words from the Kremlin.

Meanwhile, the Kremlin plans to close the subtle gap between its interests and Belarus’ — and rein in Minsk and Lukashenko even tighter. Moscow needs a solid buffer to defend against the U.S. ballistic missile facilities to be installed in the Czech Republic and Poland. It may well put missiles of its own on Belarusian turf. The recent events in Georgia have shown that Russia is prepared to take action to secure its flanks, and Minsk understands the implications. Belarus has always been a Russian ally, but now the Kremlin will give no room for even a hint of a question about Minsk’s subservience.

Russia-Georgia Conflict Fueled by Rush to Control Caspian Energy Resources

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 17:16:40 GMT

August 15, 2008

Russia-Georgia Conflict Fueled by Rush to Control Caspian Energy Resources

Human Rights Watch has accused both Russian and Georgian forces of killing and injuring civilians through indiscriminate attacks over the past week of fighting. Professor and author Michael Klare joins us to talk about how the Russian-Georgian conflict is largely an energy war over who has access to the vast oil and natural gas reserves in the Caspian region. [includes rush transcript]

Michael Klare, author of thirteen books, including Blood and Oil and Resource Wars. His latest is Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet: The New Geopolitics of Energy. He is the defense analyst for The Nation and the director of the Five College Program in Peace and World Security Studies at Hampshire College in Amherst.

Rush Transcript

This transcript is available free of charge. However, donations help us provide closed captioning for the deaf and hard of hearing on our TV broadcast. Thank you for your generous contribution.
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JUAN GONZALEZ: Human Rights Watch has accused both Russian and Georgian forces of killing and injuring civilians through indiscriminate attacks over the past week of fighting.

On Tuesday, a Russian cluster bomb strike in the town of Gori killed at least eight civilians including the Dutch journalist Stan Storimans. An Israeli journalist was seriously wounded in the same attack. Human Rights Watch said this is the first known use of cluster munitions since Israel’s attack on Lebanon in 2006.

Meanwhile, tensions remain high between Moscow and Washington. On Thursday, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates issued a stern warning to Russia.

ROBERT GATES: If Russia does not step back from its aggressive posture and actions in Georgia, the US-Russian relationship could be adversely affected for years to come.

AMY GOODMAN: Russia is now maintaining that the events of the past week have fundamentally redrawn Georgia’s borders. Russia’s Foreign Minister said it will be impossible to persuade the separatist regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia to agree to be forced back into the Georgian state.

Our next guest has been closely examining how the Russian-Georgian conflict is largely an energy war over who has access to the vast oil and natural gas reserves in the Caspian region.

JUAN GONZALEZ: Three [years] ago the United States helped open a 1,000-mile-long pipeline that connected Azerbaijan to Turkey, running through Georgia. The pipeline was designed specifically to bypass Russia. More oil and natural gas pipelines are scheduled to be built in Georgia.

Michael Klare is the author of thirteen books, including Blood and Oil and Resource Wars. His latest book is Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet: The New Geopolitics of Energy. He is the defense analyst for The Nation and the director of the Five College Program in Peace and World Security Studies at Hampshire College in Amherst. He joins us this morning.

Welcome to Democracy Now!, Michael.

MICHAEL KLARE: Good morning.

JUAN GONZALEZ: Well, talk to us about the pipelines and the energy aspect that has received almost very little attention in all the coverage of the Russian-Georgia conflict.

MICHAEL KLARE: Well, I believe that this is what really underlies the conflict, and it has to do with the fact that the US has eyed the Caspian Sea, which lies just to the east of Georgia, as an energy corridor for exporting Caspian Sea oil and gas to the West, bypassing Russia. And this was the brainchild of Bill Clinton, who saw an opportunity, when the Soviet Union broke apart, to gain access to Caspian oil and gas, but he didn’t want this new energy to flow through Russia or through Iran, which were the only natural ways to export the energy.

So he anointed Georgia as a bridge, to build new pipelines through Georgia to the West. And it was he who masterminded the construction of the BTC pipeline, which is now the outlet for this oil, with new pipelines supposedly following for natural gas. And he chose Georgia for this purpose and also built up the Georgian military to protect the pipeline, and Russia has been furious about this ever since. And I think that’s the reason that they have clung so tightly to Abkhazia and South Ossetia ever since.

AMY GOODMAN: We’re not hearing very much about this conflict, as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice heads to the area—I mean, the energy oil politics behind this conflict.

MICHAEL KLARE: No, but if you study very closely the history of US ties to Georgia, it’s unmistakable. Even under the Clinton administration, when Eduard Shevardnadze was the president of Georgia, who was hardly a paragon of democracy, President Clinton said that we need Georgia as an energy ally of the United States. And that was the basis on which the US forged a military alliance with Georgia.

And since then, we’ve poured hundreds of millions of dollars into beefing up the Georgian military. And this is unmistakable in the State Department and military Department of Defense justifications for arming the Georgian military, specifically to protect the BTC pipeline against sabotage and attack. So, looking into the Pentagon and State Department documents, there’s no question that this is about energy security, not about democracy or human rights or the other justifications that have been given.

JUAN GONZALEZ: Now, how would the two breakaway provinces affect this battle? Does the pipeline run through one or either of them?

MICHAEL KLARE: No, they run very close to South Ossetia, in particular, and I believe that the Russians have always been resentful of this effort by the United States to bypass Russia. Now, previously to this effort by the Clinton administration, subsequently embraced by the Bush administration, to establish bypass pipelines, previous to that, all of the pipelines from the Caspian Sea ran through Russia, of course formerly the Soviet Union, ran through Russia to Europe.

And it is the ambition of the Russian leadership, especially Vladimir Putin, to dominate the flow of oil and natural gas from the Caspian Sea to Europe, so they could maximize the profit and the political advantage of dominating the flow of Caspian energy to Europe. And by building these alternate pipelines, the US is trying to undercut Russia’s political and economic power in Europe. That’s what this is about. It’s a geopolitical contest between the US and Europe for—between the US and Russia for influence in Europe.

So, by clinging to these enclaves, this is Russia’s insurance policy, I guess you could call it, or veto power, over the American strategy, because they’re saying, “From our positions in these enclaves, we can sever those pipelines whenever we want,” which is exactly what they attempted to do this week. They did in fact bomb or attack the pipelines. And what they’re saying to the Europeans is, “You can build pipelines through Georgia, but we can snap them whenever we want.” And I think that the message that they’ve been sending to the Europeans is, “Don’t think that you could build more pipelines through Georgia and they’ll be safe. They’ll never be safe.”

JUAN GONZALEZ: And, Michael, as you mentioned in one of your recent articles, the Russian leadership is as tied to its energy infrastructure as the present Bush administration is to the energy infrastructure here. President Medvedev is a former head of Gazprom, isn’t he?

MICHAEL KLARE: Yes, exactly. And what’s underway in Europe is an effort headed by the EU to try to get under the thumb of Gazprom’s dominant role in the delivery of natural gas. Gazprom now delivers something like one-fourth of Europe’s natural gas. And if Gazprom has its way, it will double the amount of natural gas it supplies to Europe.

This has many Europeans and the United States deeply worried, because it kind of undercuts NATO’s independence. So, under American prodding, Europe has plans to build an alternative energy natural gas system called Nabucco, after the opera by Verdi, and this would go right through Georgia. And I think one of the major objectives of Russia’s incursion into Georgia is to say to the European leadership, “Your ideas about Nabucco are futile, because we can smash the Nabucco system anytime we want.”

AMY GOODMAN: Michael Klare, I wanted to ask you about John McCain’s adviser, the controversy around Randy Scheunemann, part owner of the lobbying firm Orion Strategies, the Washington Post revealing Scheunemann briefed McCain before an April phone call with Georgian President Saakashvili, the same day Orion signed a $200,000 contract to advise Saakashvili’s government. Scheunemann then helped McCain draft a strong statement of support for Georgia. And Saakashvili has been talking directly to McCain, I mean, speaking through the press to McCain.

MICHAEL KLARE: Yes. It’s my impression that neoconservative circles in Washington have been egging Saakashvili on, have been telling him that he had much stronger support in Washington for this move, for this attack he made last week into South Ossetia, than he really did. I think, like so much else that’s happened in the past few years, there are really two foreign policy voices in Washington: the State Department voice of Condoleezza Rice and the Vice President’s Office and other elements around Dick Cheney that have a completely different foreign policy. And I wouldn’t be surprised if people around John McCain and Vice President Cheney weren’t telling Saakashvili that if he invaded South Ossetia, he would get much more support from the United States than in fact he did, and that this is what motivated him to provoke this clash, thinking that the US would come to his rescue. I have absolutely no evidence for that, but this kind of report that you just cited leads me to think that he went into South Ossetia last week with some sort of promises that never materialized.

JUAN GONZALEZ: And what do you make of Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee, his response to this crisis? Do you see any difference in his approach at this point from those of Bill Clinton previously or President Bush, in terms of the situation in Georgia?

MICHAEL KLARE: Well, you know, I get the sense that he was caught off guard by all of this. You don’t get the impression that he was following this as closely maybe as he should have. I don’t think he was aware of just how much—how much there has been this history of US support for Saakashvili and how much encouragement he’s probably been receiving from elements in Washington to engage in this adventuristic policy against the Russians.

And again, I don’t know how much he’s even aware of the degree to which Georgia has been a US military protectorate, the hundreds of millions of dollars of military aid, the fact that there are US military instructors in Georgia, and that this fast-track NATO policy that the Bush administration has favored—all of this has been viewed in Moscow as an effort, as part of this larger effort, that the Bush administration has pushed—is seen in Moscow as part of an offensive, you know, an attack on Russia. It’s tied, of course, to plans for putting missile interceptors in Poland and with the radars in Czechoslovakia. They see this as a Cold War assault on Russia coming from Washington, tied also to plans I mentioned a minute ago to bring Ukraine and Georgia into NATO. They feel they’re under attack and very threatened. And so, all of this is viewed by them as something that required a strong countermove.

I don’t get the sense that Senator Obama was quite aware of the degree to which they felt under attack and were poised for some kind of counter-response.

AMY GOODMAN: It’s also interesting to see the presidents of Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia standing with the Georgian president. They all went to Georgia. I just came back from Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, and I was very struck by, when asking why these countries had joined with the US in invading Iraq, albeit their forces very small in number but both in Iraq and Afghanistan, people repeatedly said, “We have to do this, because we need the US support against Russia.” They’re still very afraid of a Russian occupation. They don’t forget the sixty years.

MICHAEL KLARE: Yes, this is true. But on the other hand, I—again, I come back to this notion that we have two foreign policies. We have the State Department foreign policy, Condoleezza Rice, who often speaks of the need for a cooperative relationship with Russia, with working out these complicated issues, and we have a neoconservative foreign policy emanating from the Vice President’s Office, which isn’t interested in cooperation, which is interested in confrontation and in reviving the Cold War. And I think that they go to the countries on the border of the Soviet Union and encourage them to take a confrontational line and seek out leaders who are willing to speak this way. This is not where the rest of Europe is inclined.

AMY GOODMAN: Michael Klare, we want to thank you for being with us, defense analyst for The Nation, director of the Five College Program for Peace and World Security Studies at Hampshire College in Amherst. His latest book is Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet: The New Geopolitics of Energy.

http://i2.democracynow.org/2008/8/15/russia_georgia_conflict_fueled_by_rush

Avraham's One Village - JEWISH & benei Noach's ONE VILLAGE ***Barukh haba***: News and politics

DER SPIEGEL INTERNATIONAL NEWSLETTER - Wednesday August 20, 2008

Russia gets a pass - The Georgia Hypocrisy (by Steven Plaut)

Aliyah Under Fire: Young Girl Immigrates from War-Torn Georgia (by Gil Ronen)

DER SPIEGEL INTERNATIONAL NEWSLETTER - Tuesday August 19, 2008

DER SPIEGEL INTERNATIONAL NEWSLETTER - Monday August 18, 2008

West struggles to find safe footing on Georgia (by Steven Erlanger)

Georgia conflict: Condoleezza Rice toughens stance towards Russia (by Alex Spillius and Adrian Blomfield)

Georgia conflict: Condoleezza Rice toughens stance towards Russia

Washington has toughened its stance towards Russia as it sought to limit the damage to its prestige over the crisis in Georgia.

Georgia: Russian military entrench themselves deeper (by Adrian Blomfield)

Georgia: Russian military entrench themselves deeper

Far from pulling out, Russian military units are entrenching themselves in new positions deeper into Georgia.

Merkel backing for Georgia

Georgia: More trouble in the pipeline

Georgia: More trouble in the pipeline

[Stratfor Today] Belarus: Lukashenko after the Georgian Invasion

Belarus: Lukashenko after the Georgian Invasion

Russia-Georgia Conflict Fueled by Rush to Control Caspian Energy Resources

August 15, 2008

Russia-Georgia Conflict Fueled by Rush to Control Caspian Energy Resources

Rush Transcript

Avraham's One Village - JEWISH & benei Noach's ONE VILLAGE Barukh haba: News and politics