14/8/8 -- In August 2008, Georgia launched a major military offensive against the rebel province South Ossetia, just hours after President Mikhail Saakashvili had announced a unilateral ceasefire.
Russia and ex-Soviet Union (English)
Ossetia: War a la carte
- Written by Eric Walberg Эрик Вальберг/ Уолберг إيريك والبرغ
Georgia: The mouse that roared
- Written by Eric Walberg Эрик Вальберг/ Уолберг إيريك والبرغ
8/5/8 -- While Georgians see themselves as part of Europe, "the whole history of Georgia is of Georgian kings writing to Western kings for help, or for understanding. And sometimes not even getting a response," said its thoroughly Westernised president, Mikheil Saakashvili, in a recent interview. "Not just being an isolated, faraway country, but part of something bigger."
With a population of 4.7 million, this beautiful land, noted for its dozen or so hot-blooded independent-minded peoples, is surrounded by at best indifferent neighbours Armenia, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and of course Russia.
Russia-US: Plus ca change
- Written by Eric Walberg Эрик Вальберг/ Уолберг إيريك والبرغ
The West and Russia are continuing their worn-out Cold War dance routine, argues Eric Walberg
17/3/8 -- As antagonists United States President George W Bush and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin both begin ceding power to others, one would expect new political horizons to open up. Bush already looks more like a footnote than a leader, with the US focussing on McCain vs Clinton/Obama, leaving the failed president a classic lame duck. Putin is introducing his successor Dmitri Medvedev to the subtleties of power politics, with Western analysts slavering over hints in his biography of liberalism and even a rejection of Putin's clear anti-imperialist foreign politics. But this appearance of change belies the reality.
Ex-president Putin: To stay and leave at the same time
- Written by Eric Walberg Эрик Вальберг/ Уолберг إيريك والبرغ
Putin: Defining diplomacy
- Written by Eric Walberg Эрик Вальберг/ Уолберг إيريك والبرغ
24/1/8 -- There are several irons in the East-West fire these days -- Kosovo, Poland, NATO, pipeline routes through Eastern Europe, to name just the most obvious bones of superpower contention.
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