Russia develops military forces, strategic alliances to counter US

[BanglaBhoot]

By Niall Green

13 August 2008

The current conflict between Georgia and Russia provides a stark expression of the enormous tensions between the major powers. Behind the eruption of fighting over the breakaway republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia lies growing economic and strategic rivalry between the United States and Russia, in particular for control of the vast oil and gas resources and energy pipelines of Central Asia.

Since the liquidation of the Soviet Union in 1991, the US has persistently worked to exert its influence across the region once dominated by Moscow. Russia has reacted by seeking to establish its own alliances, particularly with China, to strengthen its position in Central Asia. Russia and China through the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) formed in 2001, have formed close ties with the Central Asia republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, in part, to counter US moves in the region.

Russia is also taking steps to boost the country’s military capabilities. While military spending in Russia is still a tiny fraction of the gargantuan US defence budget, Moscow has made efforts in recent years to arrest the decline of its armed forces, including replacing much of its Soviet-era military equipment.

The Russian government confirmed on July 27 that it planned to build up to six aircraft carrier battle groups and upgrade its nuclear submarine fleet. Navy spokesman Admiral Vladimir Vysotsky announced during Navy Day festivities in St Petersburg that construction would begin after 2012. “We call this a sea-borne aircraft carrier system which will be based on the Northern and Pacific fleets,” he said.

The aircraft carriers will form the basis for joint task groups that will include submarines, surface combat units, aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles, as well as commando forces. Kremlin military planners estimate that the overhaul of the navy will be complete by 2050. New training facilities for navy pilots are also to be built, coming into use by 2010.

The development of new fleets in the Arctic and the Pacific mirrors Russian energy policy, which has plans for oil and gas pipelines and shipping lanes in these areas to transport the vast energy reserves of Siberia onto the world markets.

Russia is bitterly opposed to US steps to establish an anti-ballistic missile system close to its borders in Czech Republic and Poland. While Washington claims the proposed bases would target missile threats from “rogue states” such as Iran, Moscow has vociferously denounced the US scheme as intended to neutralise Russia’s nuclear capabilities.

In response, Moscow has re-established frequent flights of nuclear-armed long-range bombers over the Pacific and Arctic Oceans, which had been halted after the dissolution of the USSR in 1991. Russia has also hinted that it would target US anti-missile sites in Europe and possibly re-establish a refuelling base for its bombers in Cuba.

Russia has also increased oil and gas prices to Poland and the Czech Republic in order to pressure their governments to reject the US plans. In late July, the Russian oil pipeline monopoly Transneft cut supplies to the Czech Republic by 50 percent.

Russia and China

The Kremlin’s concern over encirclement by American military bases and pro-US allies is shared by the Chinese elite. Russia and China have also voiced hostility to Japanese involvement in the US missile shield programme.

Since the mid-1990s, Moscow and Beijing put aside many of their previous disputes in an effort to develop mechanisms to defend and advance their shared interests vis-à-vis the US. The two governments finalised a protocol on July 21 that formally demarcates their 4,300km international border—a major step to settle the longstanding tensions between the powers. The former USSR and China were involved in a series of military clashes in 1969 over a border dispute along the Amur River between the Russian Far East and northeastern China.

Russia has also recently strengthened its role as a supplier to China’s rapidly expanding nuclear power industry, with the two countries signing a $1.5 billion deal to build a fuel enrichment facility and supply uranium. This includes the construction of two Vodo-Vodyanoi Energetichesky reactors and a gas centrifuge plant in China and the provision of uranium-enrichment services.

Dmitry Medvedev’s first foreign trip after taking over as Russia’s president on May 7, was to Kazakhstan and then China. The new Russian president met his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao in Beijing. (In 2003, the Chinese president’s first foreign visit took him to Moscow.)

In the official joint statement, the two leaders made a thinly veiled condemnation of Washington’s planned missile shield. “Both sides believe that creating a global missile defence system, including deploying such systems in certain regions of the world, or plans for such co-operation, do not help support strategic balance and stability, and harm international efforts to control arms and the non-proliferation process,” it read.

“Some don’t like such strategic cooperation between our countries, but we understand that this cooperation serves the interests of our people, and we will strengthen it, regardless of whether others like it or not,” Medvedev said. “Russian-Chinese relations are one of the most important factors of maintaining stability in modern conditions.”

Speaking at Tsinghua University the day after meeting Hu Jintao, Medvedev claimed that the alliance with China was not directed against any other nation. “It is aimed at maintaining a global balance,” he said. In a further barb aimed at Washington, Medvedev added that Russia and China support international law and a “decisive role” for the United Nations.

As well as discussing strategic defence plans, the trip was aimed at promoting the already booming levels of trade between Russia and China. Officials and businessmen from the two countries signed a package of agreements ranging from energy and aerospace to tourism and forestry. Bilateral trade volumes have surged from $10.7 billion in 2000 to $48.2 billion last year.

Following his attendance at the opening of the Olympic Games, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin met with President Hu Jintao on August 9 to discuss proposals for further bilateral and multilateral cooperation. Hu said China and Russia would enhance their strategic cooperation to promote “global multi-polarization”, boost political cooperation and seek mutual benefits in economic development. Putin reaffirmed Russia’s policy of growing cooperation with China.

Despite closer relations, tensions remain. China is concerned about the rising price of Russian oil and gas exports, with disputes over costs stalling the construction of pipelines from Siberia to China. A multi-billion dollar contract signed in 2006 for Russian energy supplies has unravelled, with Russia’s state-owned oil company, Rosneft, threatening to end the deal unless China agrees on a price increase.

In a move that has angered Beijing, Moscow has announced alternative plans for a pipeline to Russia’s Pacific coast that will force China to compete with Japan and South Korea for Siberian energy. Currently, the Chinese plan to import 50 billion tons of Russian oil and gas between 2010 and 2015.

There is also mounting unease in Moscow over China’s growing influence in Central Asia. Medvedev’s visit to Kazakhstan in May was widely viewed as a message to both Beijing and Washington that Moscow sees the region, and its energy resources and pipelines, as firmly within its sphere of influence.

At this stage, however, any rivalry between Russia and China is being set to one side as both countries view the US push into Central Asia as a far greater threat to their economic and strategic interests. Russia will undoubtedly use the next heads of state meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, on August 28 as a platform to marshal support from other member states to support its actions in South Ossetia and Abkhazia against Georgian forces.

Russia develops military forces, strategic alliances to counter US

 

[IceCold]

A counter balance is needed in order to stop uncle Sam right in its tracks. China and Russia together can play that role.

 

[BanglaBhoot]

U.S.-Poland Missile Talks Resume Amid Renewed Focus on Security

By Katya Andrusz

Aug. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Talks on locating part of a planned U.S. missile-defense shield on Polish territory resume in Warsaw today amid renewed demands from Poland for increased security guarantees in the wake of the Georgian conflict.

U.S. Undersecretary of State John Rood is meeting with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski for two days of talks aimed at allowing the U.S. to site 10 interceptor missiles in Poland as part of a forward line of defense against possible attacks from countries such as Iran.

The U.S. signed an agreement last month with the Czech Republic on locating a radar base there. The Polish government is holding out for more financial and logistical help to develop its armed forces. Poland says fighting over the past week between Georgia and Russia underlines its case.

``The Americans have been extremely insensitive to what seems to us in Poland to be so clear,'' Roman Kuzniar, a professor at Warsaw University's Institute of International Relations, said by phone. ``If the Georgian conflict shows us anything, it's that Poland really does need security guarantees above and beyond what the U.S. wants to give.''

Polish President Lech Kaczynski joined his counterparts from Ukraine and the Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia in Tbilisi today, where he addressed crowds in a demonstration of solidarity with President Mikheil Saakashvili.

Russia and Georgia accused each other of violating a cease- fire in force since yesterday afternoon as the European Union pressed ahead with a peace plan that ended the six-day conflict.

Left `Naked'

``It's clear that we need security assurances that don't leave Poland with no more than a `naked' installation,'' Tusk told reporters yesterday. ``We wouldn't hesitate for a minute to sign an agreement as long as it enhances Poland's security.''

Tusk said earlier this week that he was firing Deputy Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski for giving in too easily to U.S. negotiators. Waszczykowski, who had led missile-defense negotiations with the U.S. since 2005, said in an interview with the Polish issue of Newsweek published on Aug. 11 that he had already reached an agreement with the U.S. at the beginning of last month that ``guaranteed Poland's security.''

Poland is wary of opposition from Russia, with which is shares a border, to the missile plans. Russia, which has repeatedly said the proposed shield threatens its national security, has warned it will build up military defenses along its frontiers if the project goes ahead.

Even so, American diplomats say that Poland is going too far in demanding U.S. funding to modernize its armed forces and a pledge to permanently station a battery of Patriot anti- ballistic missiles in Poland.

``We don't see the necessity of extra-special security agreements,'' Andrew Schilling, counselor for public affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Warsaw, said by phone. ``In our view, our guarantees to our partners through NATO are a sufficient commitment.''

Bloomberg.com: Worldwide

 

[BanglaBhoot]

Bush Says Pentagon to Deliver Georgian Relief Aid (Update1)

By Henry Meyer and Holly Rosenkrantz

Aug. 13 (Bloomberg) -- President George W. Bush said the U.S. military will lead a humanitarian aid effort to Georgia and that he expects Russia to withdraw all troops sent into the country since fighting started.

``We expect Russia to ensure that all lines of communication and transport, including sea ports, airports, roads and airspace remain open for the delivery of humanitarian assistance and for civilian transit,'' Bush told reporters in Washington today. U.S. air and naval forces will help to deliver aid, he said.

By using the military to deliver humanitarian relief and dispatching Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to Tbilisi, Bush is signaling the U.S. is firmly committed to Georgia and to exerting its own influence in the region, said Cliff Kupchan of New York-based Eurasia Group, a political risk consulting firm.

The moves are ``a symbolic shot across the bow that `enough's enough,''' Kupchan said. ``It's as much pushback with hardware as the U.S. can, or should, muster at this point.''

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko said sending U.S. navy ships to the region wouldn't be ``the best way'' to deliver humanitarian aid.'' Russia is ready for ``consultations'' with the U.S. on the Georgian aid effort, he said in comments broadcast on CNN.

Peace Plan

Bush's comments come one day after Georgia and Russia agreed to a European Union-brokered peace plan to end five days of fighting. EU foreign ministers are meeting in Brussels to push the peace deal forward. The 27-nation bloc may send military personnel to monitor the cease-fire, said French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, whose country brokered the accord.

The U.S. leader said he directed Secretary of Defense Robert Gates to head the humanitarian effort. ``This mission will be vigorous and ongoing,'' he said. Bush said Rice will hold talks with French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris before traveling to Georgia.

``To begin to repair the damage to its relations with the United States, Europe and other nations, and to begin restoring its place in the world, Russia must keep its word and act to end this crisis,'' Bush said.

Georgia accused Russia of sending troops beyond the South Ossetia conflict zone in violation of the cease-fire. A Russian official denied the claim, saying the troops are eliminating Georgia's ability to renew attacks.

Georgian Security Council chief Kakha Lomaia said a column of Russian troops may be moving from the city of Gori toward the Uplistsikhe military base, which Georgian forces abandoned earlier in the conflict. The Russians are advancing ``well beyond the conflict zone,'' he said today. Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said Russia is breaking the truce.

Russian `Demilitarization'

Russian government spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russian troops near South Ossetia are ``demilitarizing'' the area to prevent Georgia from attacking again. Russian forces seized Georgian tanks at a military facility outside Gori and are moving them to another location, he said.

Russian deputy chief of the General Staff Anatoly Nogovitsyn said Russian troops stopped fighting at 3 p.m. yesterday, after President Dmitry Medvedev called off military operations. He said the Russian mission includes weakening Georgia's military so that it ``can't even think about repeating its attempts to attack this or that territory.''

When Medvedev called off Russia's incursion into Georgia, he ordered the military to destroy any ``pockets of resistance'' it encounters.

Lomaia said South Ossetians and Cossacks are looting the city of Gori, near the conflict zone. The Kremlin declined immediate comment, saying it needed to investigate the claim.

Casualty Figures

Georgian Deputy Foreign Minister Giga Bokeria said Russian tanks in the city of Gori this morning destroyed military facilities. Nogovitsyn said no tanks were in Gori and that Russian forces have observed the cease-fire since 3 p.m. yesterday. A Russian Foreign Ministry official said no Russian troops are in the city. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the country's forces will withdraw only after Georgian troops return to their barracks.

Nogovitsyn said 74 Russian soldiers died in the fighting and 171 were wounded. Nineteen soldiers are missing in action, he said. Temur Iakobashvili, Georgia's minister for reintegration issues, said 175 of the country's soldiers died. Saakashvili said 180,000 people have been displaced by the fighting.

Early this morning, Sarkozy said Georgia agreed to a six- point plan to end fighting after the former Soviet republic's military was routed by Russia in the five-day conflict.

`Well-Planned Invasion'

Medvedev yesterday ordered a halt to the military campaign, which was sparked by fighting between Georgia and South Ossetia on Aug. 7. Saakashvili said Russia launched a ``well-planned invasion'' of Georgia the next day. Nogovitsyn said Georgia planned its incursion into South Ossetia in advance and expected to meet resistance only from Ossetian forces and the 588 Russian peacekeepers deployed in the region.

The war, Russia's first major foreign offensive since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, has further strained relations between the U.S., which considers Georgia one of its closest allies in the region, and its former Cold War foe.

The plan calls for the withdrawal of Georgian and Russian troops, renunciation of the use of force, an end to all military operations and a commitment to making humanitarian aid freely available in the conflict zone.

South Ossetia and Abkhazia broke away from Georgian control in wars in the early 1990s and Russian forces have been stationed as peacekeepers in the regions under a Commonwealth of Independent States mandate. Most people living in both regions have Russian passports. Saakashvili yesterday said Georgia is quitting the CIS, a loose association of all former Soviet republics except the three Baltic states.

NATO Bid

Georgia will be unable to reunify its territory a long way into the future, sabotaging its bid for NATO membership, Alexander Rahr, head of the Russia-Eurasia program at Berlin's German Council on Foreign Relations, said in an N24 television interview.

``Georgia's chances of joining NATO are going to be delayed for many, many years,'' said Rahr.

The West sees Georgia as a key ally in the region, in part because it has a pipeline that carries Caspian Sea crude oil to Western markets, bypassing Russia. U.S. President George W. Bush backs Georgia's bid to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which Russia views as a security threat.

NATO should affirm the potential of Georgia and Ukraine to become alliance members in the face of the Russian incursion, said U.S. government officials who spoke to reporters in Washington yesterday on condition they not be identified.

Medvedev declared a day of mourning for today, ordering state flags to be flown at half-mast and canceling entertainment programs on radio, television and in theaters. Georgia also declared a period of mourning.

Russian officials say about 2,000 people died in South Ossetia during the fighting.

Bloomberg.com: Worldwide

 

[genmirajborgza786]

Russia teaches US a lesson !

Russia teaches US a lesson

In this war, Russia won, Georgia lost, and US was resoundingly defeated
Orly Azoulay

Moscow's decision to flex its muscle vis-à-vis Georgia was meant to signal to the West, and particularly to Washington, not to meddle in Russia's backyard. Even before Georgia's invasion into South Ossetia, President Saakashvili was in Russia's sights. He was too American for its taste.



Saakashvili was certain he has a trusted friend in the White House; one who would come to his aid and offer significant help during times of crisis. This is what Washington made him understand. He played his role in the alliance fully when he sent his troops to take part in the Iraq War, while maintaining and securing the oil pipeline passing through his country.



War Zone

Bush: Russia's actions raise serious questions / Yizhak Benhorin

US president delivers special statement, says he is bothered by reports that Russia has been violating ceasefire agreement; Bush says US 'insists' that Georgia's sovereignty and territorial integrity be respected
Full Story
Yet when the moment of truth arrived, once Saakashvili needed Washington's help, he mostly got nice words.

President Bush and his Administration were helpless in the face of the Russia's signal that it won't allow anyone to gain a foothold in territories under its influence - just like President Kennedy did not allow the Soviet Union to keep its missiles in Cuba.

Bush has a secretary of state who is an expert on the former Soviet Union, yet she was apparently preoccupied with the problems in Iraq and with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and failed to explain to the president that the Cold War is over; Bush, who does not have a deep grasp of foreign policy, failed to internalize the fact that a new world order has emerged.

Bush's unloaded gun
Russia waited for Bush around the corner: Moscow is the big winner in the war with Georgia, if only because it taught Bush and his Administration a lesson on ties between states. Had Bush realized there's a new deal in the world, he would not have insisted on deploying his missiles in the Czech Republic and in Poland. He would have also realized that he should step back on the Kosovo issue if he wants the Russians to cooperate with him on Iran.

Bush's threats that the Washington-Moscow relationship was at risk were received amusingly in Russia. The Russians knew well that he was threatening them with an unloaded gun. Washington needs Russia more than ever if it wishes to impose severe sanctions on Iran.

Russia will likely soon boost its pressure on former Soviet states and may even be able to topple Georgia's president and replace him with a puppet regime backed by the Kremlin. One needs to be an eternal optimist in order to think that now, with the US weakness exposed, Poland and the Czech Republic would agree to deploy American missiles on their soil.



In this war, Russia won, Georgia lost, and the United States was resoundingly defeated. From now on, all former Soviet states would know that at best they can expect pretty words from Washington. Officials in Iraq and Afghanistan may also start thinking that they cannot rely on the US. Perhaps officials in Israel will start thinking twice as well.

http://www.ynetnews.com/Ext/Comp/ArticleLayout/CdaArticlePrintPreview/1,2506,L-3582191,00.html

 

[genmirajborgza786]

Russia tells US to choose !

Russia tells US to choose between it and Georgia

Published: Wednesday 13 August 2008 20:41 UTC
Last updated: Wednesday 13 August 2008 20:43 UTC
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says the United States has to choose between its virtual project, Georgia, and its real partnership with Russia. He was responding to US President George W Bush's press conference which took place earlier on Wednesday. He went on to accuse the US of arming Georgia over recent years and said Russia's partners were playing a dangerous game.

In his press conference, Mr Bush accused Russia of not honouring the ceasefire in Georgia. He said there were disturbing reports that Russian forces were still operating in the country. He went on to say he backed Georgia's democratic government and territorial integrity.

Russian forces were said to have taken positions east of Gori and to be blocking the most important supply route into the Georgian capital Tbilisi. Mr Bush also said the Georgia's port of Poti was being blockaded.

Humanitarian aid from countries including the US has begun to arrive in Tbilisi. It has also been announced that US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will travel to Tbilisi.
Latest News - Radio Netherlands Worldwide - English

 

[genmirajborgza786]

Russia rejects west's call to recognise Georgian sovereignty !


Russia rejects west's call to recognise Georgian sovereignty
· EU unveils blueprint for ending bloodshed
· Russia refuses reference to territorial integrityIan Traynor in Brussels
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday August 13 2008 19:07 BST
Article history
The US and the Europe today demanded that any settlement of the conflict in Georgia had to be based on recognition of the small Black Sea country's territorial integrity. But after overrunning Georgia in five days with troops, tanks, and bombers, Russia rejected the terms.

The EU unveiled a blueprint for ending the bloodshed in Georgia following several days of French-led shuttle diplomacy between Moscow and Tbilisi that resulted in a six-point plan underpinning a fragile ceasefire.

George Bush warned the Kremlin that it had to "keep its word and act to end this crisis."

But Russia refused to accept those terms, declined to acknowledge Georgian sovereignty over all of its recognised territory, and refused to have any reference to it in the six-point peace plan mediated by the French and agreed by both Moscow and Tbilisi.

European states agreed to dispatch scores of ceasefire monitors to Georgia as quickly as possible in the hope of securing the truce announced on yesterday. They may also lead an international peacekeeping mission to Georgia if the Georgians and Russians agree and a UN mandate is obtained, senior European officials said.

The Russians and the Georgians agreed to "international discussions" on South Ossetia and Abkhazia, but the Russians kept their options open on the two pro-Russian breakaway provinces.

An EU statement said any peace settlement had to be based on Georgia's recognised territorial integrity. Speaking at the White House, Bush said: "The United States of America stands with the democratically elected government of Georgia. We insist that the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia be respected."

But Sergei Ivanov, Russia's deputy prime minister and former defence minister, repeatedly refused to recognize Georgian control over its territory.

"We recognise the sovereignty and independence of Georgia ... But territorial integrity, it's just another matter," he told BBC's Hardtalk. "South Ossetia and Abkhazia never were part of Georgia as an independent country."

The foreign ministers of the 27 EU countries interrupted their holidays for an emergency session on the Caucasus crisis today in Brussels. France's foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, just back from the conflict zone, admitted that the deal he and President Nicolas Sarkozy mediated was "partially unsatisfactory", but that the priority was to obtain a durable ceasefire before embarking on more substantive political negotiations.

The points agreed by Moscow and Tbilisi proscribe the use of force, pledge a ceasefire and guarantee access for humanitarian aid. But the political and military aspects of the agreement are problematic and the deal could yet unravel.

At Russian insistence, Georgian forces have to return to bases while Russian "peacekeepers" in the contested northern province of South Ossetia are allowed to stage security patrols "and additional security measures" until an "international mechanism" is agreed.

"That gives the Russians undefined security rights in undefined territory in Georgia. That's an invitation to further problems," the Swedish foreign minister, Carl Bildt, told the Guardian.

The Russians, whose invasion of Georgia at the weekend has shocked the west and which today stirred more detailed talk of specific sanctions against Russia, agreed to "international negotiations on the modalities of security and stability" in South Ossetia and Abkhazia after having initially demanded talks on the status of the two provinces.

Both regions have been beyond the Georgian government's control since the early 90s and the small ethnic wars that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union. President Mikheil Saakashvili of Georgia launched an abortive and disastrous bid to retake control of South Ossetia last week only to see his country invaded by the Russians and his military crushed.

Prospective western reprisals against Moscow came into clearer focus today, with the Americans calling a special session of Nato foreign ministers which could decide to suspend Russia's formal consultative link with the western alliance while David Milliband, the foreign secretary, suggested Russia could be expelled from the G8 and that the EU could halt negotiations just started on a far-reaching strategic partnership pact between Russia and Europe.

"The Russians have been in breach of international law. There will be consequences of some sort," said Bildt.

But any such moves will trigger resistance in a divided EU. Brussels' attempts to play the key mediating role also limit its scope for taking sides.

"We don't have time now to get into long discussions on blame," said Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the German foreign minister.

"We shouldn't make any moral judgments on this war. Stopping the war, that's what we're interested in," said Kouchner. "Don't ask us who's good and who's bad here."

Saakashvili accused the west - the Americans, Nato, and the EU - of disunity on the crisis and of consistently underestimating the Russian threat.

"The response has not been adequate. It looks like appeasement to me. We need real action, not just words."

About this articleClose Russia rejects west's call to recognise Georgian sovereignty
Russia rejects west's call to recognise Georgian sovereignty | World news | guardian.co.uk

 

[Contrarian]

Sanctions against Russia are pointless. They will stop gas supplies to Europe in return. Frankly i think barring India, none of the BRIC countries can be placed under sanctions without the western nations harming themselves in some way or another.

 

[vish]

Russia saw a window of opportunity to hit a US ally in its (Russia's) backyard; it (Russia) took it. That is all that there is to this.

Russia can do squat against America.

 

[Flintlock]

I fail to understand why people are cheering for Russia. A resurgent Russia cannot bode well for its neighbouring countries. It doesn't give half a damn about human rights and stuff like that....it'll bomb the hell out of whoever comes in its way.

 

[Contrarian]

It is not bombing its own people mate. Its bombing a territory where the Georgian troops moved in.

 

[Flintlock]

It is not bombing its own people mate. Its bombing a territory where the Georgian troops moved in.

Yeah, I get that..but will Russia stop at just Ossetia?

 

[vish]

Russia will stop at South Ossetia.

 

[IceCold]

I fail to understand why people are cheering for Russia. A resurgent Russia cannot bode well for its neighbouring countries. It doesn't give half a damn about human rights and stuff like that....it'll bomb the hell out of whoever comes in its way.

The same can be said about the US considering the human rights abuse both in Afghanistan and Iraq. It all comes down to self interest and nothing more. Russia did what it had to do.

 

[BanglaBhoot]

In the guise of humanitarian aid Bush dispatches US military forces to Georgia

By Barry Grey

WSWS -14 August 2008

In a major escalation of the conflict with Russia over Georgia, President George W. Bush on Wednesday announced a “vigorous and ongoing” deployment of US military forces to its key ally in the Caucasus. Bush appeared in the White House Rose Garden for the second time in three days, this time flanked by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and announced the military buildup, casting it as a humanitarian relief operation.

Even as he spoke of a humanitarian mission, Bush made clear the military dimensions of the measures he was announcing. He said he was directing Pentagon chief Gates to lead the mission, which would be “headed by the United States military.” He announced that a C-17 military aircraft was already on its way to Georgia and that “in the days ahead we will use US aircraft, as well as naval forces, to deliver humanitarian and medical supplies.”

This is a formula for an injection of US military and naval forces into Georgia of indeterminate scope and duration. It will certainly involve the presence of hundreds if not thousands of uniformed US military personnel on the ground, and a substantial number of warships in the region. The US is introducing this military force into a situation that remains highly unstable and combustible, raising the possibility of a direct military clash between the United States and Russia.

Bush spoke less than a day after Russia and Georgia had agreed provisionally to a cease-fire in their five-day war. The agreement had been brokered by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, acting on behalf of the European Union.

Even as Bush spoke, Russia and Georgia were trading accusations of truce violations, and Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili was objecting to provisions of the agreement which, he claimed, failed to prevent the pro-Russian break-away republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia from seceding from Georgia.

In his remarks, Bush issued an implicit threat against any attempt by Russia to interfere with Washington’s “humanitarian” operation. “We expect Russia to honor its commitment,” he said, “to let in all forms of humanitarian assistance. We expect Russia to ensure that all lines of communications and transport, including seaports, airports, roads and airspace, remain open for the delivery of humanitarian assistance and for civilian transit.”

The US will pour military resources into Georgia to strengthen its hand against Russia, and denounce any objections by Moscow as an attack on humanitarian aid and a violation of the cease-fire agreement.

Within minutes of Bush’s Rose Garden statement, Saakashvili spelled out its essential meaning in a televised address from Tbilisi. “You have heard the statement by the US president that the United States is starting a military-humanitarian operation in Georgia,” he said. “It means that Georgian ports and airports will be taken under the control of the US defense ministry...”

He went on to call Bush’s “relief” mission a “turning point,” and characterized its import as “definitely an American military presence.”

Bush also announced that Rice would immediately travel to France to meet with Sarkozy and then go to Georgia. Employing the rhetoric of the Cold War, he said Rice would meet with Saakashvili and “continue our efforts to rally the free world in defense of a free Georgia.”

He further threatened Russia with diplomatic and political sanctions, suggesting it might be excluded from the G-8 group of industrialized nations and prevented from joining the World Trade Organization.

Hypocrisy

Bush’s remarks were drenched with hypocrisy. He reiterated Washington’s support for Georgian control of the disputed territories of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, invoking once again the “sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia.” Neither he nor any other American spokesperson has explained why Georgia’s use of murderous violence against South Ossetia in its indiscriminate shelling of the region’s capital city was a legitimate defense of “territorial integrity,” while Serbia’s use of force against Kosovan secessionists was a war crime.

The US seized on Serbia’s moves against CIA-backed separatists in Kosovo to carry out a ten-week air war, under the auspices of NATO, in 1999. While Washington decries Russia’s “disproportionate” use of force against Georgian troops which attacked South Ossetia and condemns Moscow for military action beyond the borders of the breakaway republic, the US and NATO rained bombs and missiles on virtually all parts of Serbia, demolishing bridges, water pumping stations, electricity grids, government buildings, housing developments, schools and hospitals in the capital city of Belgrade. The US and NATO killed far more civilians in its campaign to crush Serbia, a traditional ally of Russia, than have been killed by both sides in the current fighting in the Caucasus.

The US has absolutely no political or moral standing to denounce Russia or anyone else for deploying military force. Washington asserts an unlimited and unilateral right to mobilize its massive apparatus of military violence wherever and whenever it wishes, spreading death and destruction from the Persian Gulf to Central Asia and threatening even more bloody conflagrations.

In the current conflict, the US government and media have cast Russia as the aggressor. There is no progressive content to Moscow’s actions in Georgia. They are motivated by the predatory aims of the Russian ruling elite, which is intent on reasserting Russian control over territories on its border that it dominated for centuries. However, the eruption of war in the Caucasus is the outcome of a policy pursued by US imperialism since the breakup of the Soviet Union whose ultimate aim is the reduction of Russia to a semi-colonial status.

It is inconceivable that Washington was not intimately involved in the preparations for Georgia’s attack on South Ossetia. US military advisers virtually run the military of what Washington considers its key ally in the Cacausus, a strategically critical bridgehead between the oil-rich Caspian Basin and Western Europe.

Just one month ago Secretary of State Rice visited Tbilisi and reaffirmed US support for Georgia’s admission to NATO, a development which Russia considers an intolerable threat to its security. Rice’s visit was followed by a massive three-week military training exercise, in which 1,000 US troops participated.

The incendiary measures announced by Bush on Wednesday represent the response of American imperialism to the major setback it has suffered as a result of Russia’s military intervention in Georgia. There is great concern within the US ruling elite that Russia’s routing of Georgia will undermine Washington’s drive to displace Russia from Moscow’s former spheres of influence in Eastern Europe and Central Asia and establish American hegemony over the Eurasian land mass.

US policy makers worry that the example of Georgia will weaken US control over right-wing client regimes it has established in a whole number of countries that were either part of the Soviet Union, such as Georgia and Ukraine, or allied to the Soviet Union through the Warsaw Pact.

A pattern of provocation

From the dissolution of the USSR in 1991 to the present, the United States has carried out a policy of militarily encircling Russia and surrounding it with hostile states dependent upon and subservient to Washington.

As the USSR was disintegrating, the United States launched its first war against Iraq, a key ally of the Soviet Union in the Middle East. During the 1990s, the US and Western Europe sponsored the dismemberment of Yugoslavia in order to isolate and weaken the Russian ally Serbia.

In 1998, the US spearheaded the incorporation into NATO, the US-dominated military alliance, of a whole number of newly independent states that had been either part of the Soviet Union or allied to it through the Warsaw Pact, including Estonia, Latvia, Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Bulgaria.

In 1999 the US launched the air war against Serbia. At the same time, the US organized the construction of a new pipeline to transport oil from the Caspian Basin, via Baku, through Georgia to the Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, bypassing Russian territory.

In 2002, the US set up military bases in the former Central Asian Soviet republics of Uzbekistan (since then closed at the insistence of the Uzbek government) and Kyrgyzstan. At the end of 2003, the US engineered the “Rose Revolution” that brought Saakashvili to power in Georgia. In 2004, NATO admitted a new group of states formerly aligned with Russia—Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. One year later it orchestrated the “Orange Revolution” that toppled a pro-Russian government in Ukraine and replaced it with a pro-American regime.

The final chapter in this assault on the strategic position of Russia was the recognition last February of Kosova’s bid for independence from Serbia.

Until now, the US has encountered no serious resistance. The events of the past week represent a major shift. For the first time, Russia, flush with oil money and able to exploit the overextended state of the US military, with its massive commitments in Iraq and Afghanistan, pushed back.

This has evoked an apoplectic response in the American ruling elite, which has no intention of accepting a diminution of its influence in the regions formerly dominated by the Soviet Union. US imperialism will react by immensely escalating its confrontation with Russia, no matter what the cost.

There is also a domestic component to the US escalation of tensions with Russia. The Bush administration is consciously seeking to create an atmosphere of international crisis in the run-up to the November presidential election. It calculates that an election held in an environment of fear and insecurity will boost the electoral chances of the Republican candidate John McCain.

McCain has based his campaign on his military background and his supposed foreign policy experience. From early on, he has called for a more combative stance toward Russia, and has responded to the Georgia crisis by demanding Russia’s ejection from the G-8 and other punitive measures.

The Wall Street Journal in an editorial on Wednesday summed up the demand of sections of the ruling elite and elements within the Bush administration for a major and permanent shift to something like a new Cold War against Russia. The newspaper wrote: “Reshaping US policy toward Russia will take longer than the months between now and January 20, when a new president takes office. But Mr. Bush can at least atone for his earlier misjudgments about Mr. Putin and steer policy in a new direction that his successor would have to deal with.”

There are, in fact, only relatively minor tactical differences between McCain and Democratic candidate Barack Obama on US policy toward Russia. Both continue to demand the admission of Georgia and Ukraine into NATO, which would put the US-led military alliance on the very doorstep of Russia. Had Georgia already been a member of NATO, the alliance would have been legally bound to intervene militarily in its defense following Russia’s incursion into South Ossetia.

The trajectory of the imperialist drive to carve up the world, spearheaded by US imperialism’s mad drive for global hegemony, is ominously clear. The American ruling elite will drag American workers and all of humanity into a catastrophe unless it is stopped. The only social force capable of achieving this is the international working class, united in the struggle to put an end to capitalism, the source of imperialist war, on the basis of a revolutionary socialist program.

In the guise of humanitarian aid Bush dispatches US military forces to Georgia