WESTERN HYPOCRITES IN TOTAL CONFUSION

Leaders in the European Union are considering imposing sanctions against Russia, Bernard Kouchner, the French foreign minister, has said. (?!)

"Apart from that my friend Kouchner also said that we will soon attack Moldova and Ukraine and the Crimea ... But that is a sick imagination and probably that applies to sanctions as well," Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister told reporters in the Tajik capital.
"I think it is a demonstration of complete confusion," he said.
The warning was made "just because they're upset that the 'little pet' of certain Western capitals didn't fulfill their expectations," Lavrov said, referring to Georgia.

EU sanctions on Russia? How? EU risking the cut in energy supply from Russia during winter? I don't think so... EU must realize that US treats them as an enemy, not an ally. Where was EU when US invaded Sovereign nation of Iraq and Afghanistan? Forget that, where is EU when Isreal still occupies Palestine land? Why doesn't the EU impose sanctions on Isreal or US? Unproportional use of force?! Hello, what about NATO bombing Serbia?! It's the same shit, backthen Serbia was a bad guy and NATO the liberation force, now Georgians are the victims and Russia the agressor... where's the logic in those claims? Kosovo is unique... rrright :P The real goal of this war was to make Russians look bad (during the Olympics, ghost from the Soviet past emerges) and to put the rocket shield in Poland as an excuse. So it was about Russia all the time and not Iran. Anyone who can read a map knows that Europe has to be defended from Iranian nukes (which btw don't exist) in Turkey...

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has accused the United States of orchestrating the conflict in Georgia to benefit one of its presidential election candidates. Abkhazia and South Ossetia have been seeking independence since the early 1990s, resulting in bloody conflicts with Georgia, and that their hopes were given a new lease of life following Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence from Serbia in February and subsequent recognition by most EU and western countries, including the U.S. How different is the case of Georgian breakaway regions from Kosovo? "In both cases the center started a war in Kosovo and South Ossetia, as well as Abkhazia, but the conflicts were halted in different ways - through the ruthless inhuman bombardment of Belgrade in the case of Kosovo and without punishing Tbilisi for its attacks on Sukhumi [Abkhazia's capital]," Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said. "A ceasefire was agreed, peacekeepers were deployed and mechanisms for talks established. Belgrade has never tried to use military force or cast doubt on negotiations since 1999, but they were destroyed by Kosovo Albanians supported by the West. And it was Tbilisi that undermined the settlement mechanisms in South Ossetia and Abkhazia," Kosovo precedent had influenced Russia's decision to recognize independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

The biggest casualty of the showdown has been the West's naive belief that Georgia provides a secure alternative energy corridor that avoids either Russia or charter ‘axis of evil’ member Iran.” Over the last decade, Western companies have pumped $5 billion into developing the Batumi, Poti and Kulevi Black Sea ports, along with the Baku-Supsa oil pipeline and the BTE. However, the real crown jewel of Western investment success has been the 1,760-kilometer, 1 million barrel a day BTC pipeline. Within days of military action commencing, all oil pipelines and seaport terminal export facilities closed in Georgia. The second victim is Georgian people who trusted their naive idiot puppet president. And the biggest idiot of all is offcourse a dumbass from the Whore House who has 6 months left to destroy Iran, North Korea and the planet...

Voice of Russia

Why I had to recognise Georgia’s breakaway regions
By Dmitry Medvedev

Published by FT: August 26 2008 18:48 Last updated: August 26 2008 18:48

On Tuesday Russia recognised the independence of the territories of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. It was not a step taken lightly, or without full consideration of the consequences. But all possible outcomes had to be weighed against a sober understanding of the situation – the histories of the Abkhaz and Ossetian peoples, their freely expressed desire for independence, the tragic events of the past weeks and inter­national precedents for such a move.
Not all of the world’s nations have their own statehood. Many exist happily within boundaries shared with other nations. The Russian Federation is an example of largely harmonious coexistence by many dozens of nations and nationalities. But some nations find it impossible to live under the tutelage of another. Relations between nations living “under one roof” need to be handled with the utmost sensitivity.
After the collapse of communism, Russia reconciled itself to the “loss” of 14 former Soviet republics, which became states in their own right, even though some 25m Russians were left stranded in countries no longer their own. Some of those nations were un­able to treat their own minorities with the respect they deserved. Georgia immediately stripped its “autonomous regions” of Abkhazia and South Ossetia of their autonomy.
Can you imagine what it was like for the Abkhaz people to have their university in Sukhumi closed down by the Tbilisi government on the grounds that they allegedly had no proper language or history or culture and so did not need a university? The newly independent Georgia inflicted a vicious war on its minority nations, displacing thousands of people and sowing seeds of discontent that could only grow. These were tinderboxes, right on Russia’s doorstep, which Russian peacekeepers strove to keep from igniting.
But the west, ignoring the delicacy of the situation, unwittingly (or wittingly) fed the hopes of the South Ossetians and Abkhazians for freedom. They clasped to their bosom a Georgian president, Mikheil Saakashvili, whose first move was to crush the autonomy of another region, Adjaria, and made no secret of his intention to squash the Ossetians and Abkhazians.
Meanwhile, ignoring Russia's warnings, western countries rushed to recognise Kosovo’s illegal declaration of independence from Serbia. We argued consistently that it would be impossible, after that, to tell the Abkhazians and Ossetians (and dozens of other groups around the world) that what was good for the Kosovo Albanians was not good for them. In international relations, you cannot have one rule for some and another rule for others.
Seeing the warning signs, we persistently tried to persuade the Georgians to sign an agreement on the non-use of force with the Ossetians and Abkhazians. Mr Saakashvili refused. On the night of August 7-8 we found out why.
Only a madman could have taken such a gamble. Did he believe Russia would stand idly by as he launched an all-out assault on the sleeping city of Tskhinvali, murdering hundreds of peaceful civilians, most of them Russian citizens? Did he believe Russia would stand by as his “peacekeeping” troops fired on Russian comrades with whom they were supposed to be preventing trouble in South Ossetia?
Russia had no option but to crush the attack to save lives. This was not a war of our choice. We have no designs on Georgian territory. Our troops entered Georgia to destroy bases from which the attack was launched and then left. We restored the peace but could not calm the fears and aspirations of the South Ossetian and Abkhazian peoples – not when Mr Saakashvili continued (with the complicity and encouragement of the US and some other Nato members) to talk of rearming his forces and reclaiming “Georgian territory”. The presidents of the two republics appealed to Russia to recognise their independence.
A heavy decision weighed on my shoulders. Taking into account the freely expressed views of the Ossetian and Abkhazian peoples, and based on the principles of the United Nations charter and other documents of international law, I signed a decree on the Russian Federation’s recognition of the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. I sincerely hope that the Georgian people, to whom we feel historic friendship and sympathy, will one day have leaders they deserve, who care about their country and who develop mutually respectful relations with all the peoples in the Caucasus. Russia is ready to support the achievement of such a goal.

The writer is president of the Russian Federation

COLD WAR RETURNS

US to Russia: stop 'dangerous game'

Condoleezza Rice, the United States secretary of state, warned Moscow that it was playing a dangerous game with the US and its Nato allies.
Rice said the West was determined to prevent Russia winning a strategic victory from its conflict with Georgia. She said: "Russia is a state that is unfortunately using the one tool that it has always used ... when it wishes to deliver a message: that is its military power. We're determined to deny them their strategic objective." "Russia will pay a price," Rice said on Monday before flying to Brussels for the talks. She has arrived in Poland to sign a deal that will see a US missile defence base built on the soil of the former Soviet satellite. But the plan to site 10 US interceptor missiles by 2011-2013 at a base 180km from Russia's westernmost frontier, has infuriated Russia, which says the Poles risk attack, if the deal goes ahead. Poland has in recent years joined the EU and is a member of Nato. The US says the missile defence system is aimed at protecting it and Europe from future attacks from states such as Iran. It rejects Moscow's insistence that it is a threat to Russia. Last week, the US pulled out of a planned four-nation naval exercise with Russia in the Pacific because of Russia's actions in Georgia. Russia's navy said on Tuesday it had cancelled a September visit by a US navy frigate to a port in Russia's Far Eastern region of Kamchatka.

Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, the NATO's secretary general, said: "We cannot continue with business as usual". "It's not business as usual. They're occupying a sovereign nation," he said.

Russian warning

"Poland, by deploying [the system] is exposing itself to a strike - 100 per cent," General Anatoly Nogovitsyn was reported as saying on Friday by the Interfax news agency.

Russia has accused Nato of trying to "whitewash a criminal regime" in Tbilisi and seeking to rearm Georgia's leaders. "Nato is trying to make a victim of an aggressor and whitewash a criminal regime - save a collapsing regime - and is taking a path to the rearmament of the current leaders in Georgia," Sergei Lavrov, Russia's foreign minister, said on Tuesday.

"We hope that tomorrow's decisions by Nato will be balanced and that responsible forces in the West will give up the total cynicism that has been so evident [which] is pushing us back to the Cold War era,'' Dmitry Rogozin told reporters on Monday.

Russia has rejected a UN Security Council draft resolution demanding full compliance with the Georgia ceasefire, saying the text did not fully reflect a peace plan agreed to on Sunday.

...In other news

Afghanistan: French Nato troops have been killed in battles with Taliban fighters near Kabul. Most of the 3,000 French troops part of the 40-nation Nato-led Isaf force are in Kabul province, northeast of the capital...

Iraq: Six US sailors have been accused of abusing detainees at a prison camp in Iraq, the US navy said...