Georgia/Russia News: 02 SEP 2008
NOTE: This is an informational compilation. GMF does not endorse, either explicitly or implicitly, the content contained herein.
NEWS
For Thousands of Refugees From the Conflict in Georgia, the Fear Lingers
New York Times (U.S.), Dan Bilefsky and Michael Schwirtz, 01 Sep 2008
Summary: “As quickly as war erupted between Russia and Georgia, more than 150,000 refugees left home in a fearful scramble. More than three weeks later, many remain stranded in tents, some with little prospect of ever venturing back to their burned, mined villages. Others have gone home; some are in Russia. All carry the scars that make any war, however short, linger in memory and legend.”
Russia to Cut Oil Supplies to Europe In Response to Sanctions
Kommersant (RUS), 29 Aug 2008
Summary: Russia’s government may prompt at least one oil company to cut supplies of crude oil to Europe in response to the threats to impose sanctions in the wake of the conflict with Georgia.
EU warns Russia of talks delay
Financial Times (UK), Tony Barber, James Blitz and Daniel Dombey, 01 Sep 2008
Summary: “European Union leaders warned Russia on Monday that they would postpone talks on a new long-term partnership agreement unless Moscow withdrew its troops in Georgia to positions occupied before last month’s fighting…The communiqué contained no threat of economic sanctions against Russia. It represented a compromise between France, Germany and Italy, which are keen to maintain dialogue with Moscow, and others such as the UK, Poland and the Baltic states, which have adopted a harder line.”
E.U. Eases Off on Economic Threats After Russia Suggests Troop Pullback
Washington Post (U.S.), Philip P. Pan, 02 Aug 2008
Summary: “The European Union on Monday backed off threats to impose economic sanctions on Russia but said it would suspend talks on a wide-ranging partnership agreement with Moscow until Russian troops withdraw from positions inside Georgia…Britain and some Eastern European nations had called for tougher action against Russia…But other nations urged further dialogue with the Kremlin, arguing that trying to isolate Russia would be counterproductive, especially given Europe’s dependence on Russian oil and natural gas.”
EU Leaders Put Off Moves to Pressure Moscow
Wall Street Journal (U.S.), Marc Champion, John W. Miller, David Gauthier-Villars and Alessandra Galloni, 02 Sep 2008
Summary: “The European Union pledged Monday to help Georgia recover from Russia’s continuing military intervention, but fears over Europe’s dependence on Russia for energy and of splitting the EU prevented moves to pressure Moscow.”
Russia says EU right to avoid sanctions
Reuters, Oleg Shchedrov, 02 Aug 2008
Summary: “Russia praised the European Union on Tuesday for taking a “responsible approach” to its conflict with Georgia by declining to impose sanctions on Moscow but said the EU had failed to understand its reasons for intervening.”
Two Georgians Went to War but Never Got to Fight
New York Times (U.S.), Michael Schwirtz, 02 Sep 2008
Summary: “Giorgi Monasalidze and Nika Kharadze wandered into war singing Georgian patriotic songs, their heads filled with visions of military heroics. They ended up prisoners, compelled to clean up the debris that the fighting had left behind.”
Russia Cut Import of U.S. Poultry
Kommersant (RUS), 01 Sep 2008
Summary: Russia excluded 19 enterprises of the U.S. from the list of poultry importers starting from September 1, 2008. The given reason was poor quality of the product.
Medvedev Outlines Five Main Points of Future Foreign Policy
RIA Novosti (RUS), 31 Aug 2008
Summary: Russian President Dmitry Medvedev outlined on Sunday the five points upon which Moscow’s future foreign policy will be based, and also said that it could if necessary introduce sanctions against other states.
Kremlin Makes Its Case With Tskhinvali Tour
The MoscowTimes (RUS), Anna Smolchenko, 01 Sep 2008
Summary: The Kremlin only had to charter a plane, take about 60 foreign and Russian reporters to Beslan, bus them through the nearby Roksky Tunnel to South Ossetia, and stand back.
COMMENTARY
The Guardian (UK), Bruce Ackerman, 02 Sep 2008
Summary: “A fundamental conflict is emerging between America and Europe. Europe’s supreme strategic interest will increasingly become the definition and stabilisation of its border with Russia. This will also be an important matter for the United States, but it will not be all-important. As a consequence, Americans will be willing to trade off Europe’s supreme interest against US objectives in other parts of the world.”
Süddeutsche Zeitung (Germany), Richard Holbrooke, 02 Sep 2008
Summary: Richard Holbrooke writes that “although one might think that Russia has reached its goals in Georgia, it has in fact not reached its true goal of removing Georgia’s pro-democratic, pro-American president Saakashvili” and that most likely Moscow “has even lost the chance to remove the Georgian president through its open use open use of violence during the conflict.” But, Mr. Holbrooke goes on to write, the Georgian president also needs to rethink his own strategies.
Russian Profile (RUS), Dmitry Babich, 01 Sep 2008
Summary: “Russia’s representatives made defiant statements throughout the day on Monday, as EU leaders held an emergency summit in Brussels to define the EU’s attitude toward Russia’s recognition of the separatist territories of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, which are legally still parts of Georgia. Instead of bowing to the EU’s pressure, Russia’s representatives suggest imposing an arms embargo on Georgia.
Russia Profile Weekly Experts Panel: Evaluating the Damage
Russia Profile (RUS), Vladimir Frolov, 01 Sep 2008
Summary: With the Russian military operation to rebuff Mikheil Saakashvili’s attack on South Ossetia essentially over, and with Russia and the West engaged in a rhetorical fistfight over the conflict’s aftermath, time has come to sort through the debris of the international system that has demonstrated its ineffectiveness to deal with quarrels involving major powers.
Washington Post (U.S.) , Editorial, 02 Sep 2008
Summary: “This is a moment for clarity in thinking about Russia, which is forcibly occupying sizable chunks of a neighboring country and claiming it has every right to do so…Judging by the E.U.’s feckless response yesterday to Russia’s aggression, many European leaders still want to believe Mr. Chizhov. But what is happening in Georgia is very much about ideology, and the longer the Europeans pretend otherwise, the greater the damage they will have to contain.”
POLICY INSTITUTE ANALYSIS
Leaders debate Georgian War and Russian Relations
The German Marshall Fund (U.S.), 01 Sep 2008
Summary: “On Monday September 1st 2008, the German Marshall Fund held a debate entitled “The War in Georgia and Relations with Russia: What happened and What Now?” in Brussels, Belgium just before an emergency European Summit began. The five panelists were: Radoslaw Sikorski, Polish Foreign Minister, Matthew Bryza; US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, Temuri Yakobashvili; Georgian Minister for Reintegration, Vladimir Chizov; Russian Ambassador to the European Union, and Eckart Von Klaeden; Foreign Policy Spokesman of the CDU/CSU in the German Bundestag.”