Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
New York Times
October 2, 2008
Pg. 16
By Ellen Barry
MOSCOW — European civilian monitors entered the Georgian buffer zone outside the separatist enclave of South Ossetia on Wednesday, despite a warning from a Russian military official a day earlier that the monitors would not be allowed access to the buffer zone.
At the same time, Russia’s president, Dmitri A. Medvedev, said that Russia would fulfill its commitment to withdraw its troops to the boundaries of South Ossetia and the other breakaway enclave, Abkhazia, by Oct. 10.
“We will do everything on time,” he said at a news conference in St. Petersburg, Russia, where he traveled for talks with Spain’s prime minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.
Mr. Medvedev also said that there was no ideological basis for hostility between Russia and the West, and that he hoped to resume cooperative partnerships with NATO that were suspended in the aftermath of the war in Georgia. “Today, we don’t have the kinds of ideological differences which could spark off a cold war or, for that matter, any other war,” he said, noting that whoever won the United States presidential elections in November would probably have to focus on the financial crisis.
“It requires a lot of attention,” he said. “It’s much simpler to analyze international questions than to make the necessary economic decisions on time.”
Of NATO, he said that “the cooperation is no less important for them than for us.”
“Ultimately,” he said, “everything will be restored in full.”
Russian frustration with NATO’s expansion into Eastern Europe, which includes discussing possible membership for Georgia and Ukraine, has contributed to soured relations with the West.
In an interview published Thursday in the newspaper Izvestia, Nikolai Patrushev, the chairman of Russia’s Security Council, said he believed that NATO might deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Georgia and Ukraine if they were admitted to the alliance. From those positions, strikes could be aimed at targets in “the European part of Russia, including elements of government and military control.”
“That kind of American action could lead to the strengthening of mutual distrust and a buildup of an arms race, which we, I would note, do not seek,” Mr. Patrushev said, according to text on the newspaper’s Web site. “We are interested in sustaining normal neighborly relationships.”
The patrols in Georgia were a provision of the cease-fire agreement brokered by the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, and agreed to by Russia on Sept. 8. By midafternoon Wednesday, 14 patrols had been deployed, including some that crossed into the buffer zone near South Ossetia at three Russian checkpoints, according to Hansjörg Haber, the European Union’s mission director in Georgia. A patrol also made contact with Russian troops at a checkpoint on the boundary of Abkhazia, but did not cross in, he said.
Fighting broke out between Georgia and Russia in early August, after Georgia’s president, Mikheil Saakashvili, ordered an attack on Russian positions in the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali. Russian troops poured across the border in response and drove deep into Georgian territory.
On Aug. 26, Moscow recognized South Ossetia and Abkhazia as sovereign nations. Russia plans to keep troops there as its military withdraws from the rest of Georgia.
Stephen Castle contributed reporting from Brussels, Olesya Vartanyan from Tbilisi, Georgia, and Alan Cowell from London.
October 2, 2008
Pg. 16
By Ellen Barry
MOSCOW — European civilian monitors entered the Georgian buffer zone outside the separatist enclave of South Ossetia on Wednesday, despite a warning from a Russian military official a day earlier that the monitors would not be allowed access to the buffer zone.
At the same time, Russia’s president, Dmitri A. Medvedev, said that Russia would fulfill its commitment to withdraw its troops to the boundaries of South Ossetia and the other breakaway enclave, Abkhazia, by Oct. 10.
“We will do everything on time,” he said at a news conference in St. Petersburg, Russia, where he traveled for talks with Spain’s prime minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.
Mr. Medvedev also said that there was no ideological basis for hostility between Russia and the West, and that he hoped to resume cooperative partnerships with NATO that were suspended in the aftermath of the war in Georgia. “Today, we don’t have the kinds of ideological differences which could spark off a cold war or, for that matter, any other war,” he said, noting that whoever won the United States presidential elections in November would probably have to focus on the financial crisis.
“It requires a lot of attention,” he said. “It’s much simpler to analyze international questions than to make the necessary economic decisions on time.”
Of NATO, he said that “the cooperation is no less important for them than for us.”
“Ultimately,” he said, “everything will be restored in full.”
Russian frustration with NATO’s expansion into Eastern Europe, which includes discussing possible membership for Georgia and Ukraine, has contributed to soured relations with the West.
In an interview published Thursday in the newspaper Izvestia, Nikolai Patrushev, the chairman of Russia’s Security Council, said he believed that NATO might deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Georgia and Ukraine if they were admitted to the alliance. From those positions, strikes could be aimed at targets in “the European part of Russia, including elements of government and military control.”
“That kind of American action could lead to the strengthening of mutual distrust and a buildup of an arms race, which we, I would note, do not seek,” Mr. Patrushev said, according to text on the newspaper’s Web site. “We are interested in sustaining normal neighborly relationships.”
The patrols in Georgia were a provision of the cease-fire agreement brokered by the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, and agreed to by Russia on Sept. 8. By midafternoon Wednesday, 14 patrols had been deployed, including some that crossed into the buffer zone near South Ossetia at three Russian checkpoints, according to Hansjörg Haber, the European Union’s mission director in Georgia. A patrol also made contact with Russian troops at a checkpoint on the boundary of Abkhazia, but did not cross in, he said.
Fighting broke out between Georgia and Russia in early August, after Georgia’s president, Mikheil Saakashvili, ordered an attack on Russian positions in the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali. Russian troops poured across the border in response and drove deep into Georgian territory.
On Aug. 26, Moscow recognized South Ossetia and Abkhazia as sovereign nations. Russia plans to keep troops there as its military withdraws from the rest of Georgia.
Stephen Castle contributed reporting from Brussels, Olesya Vartanyan from Tbilisi, Georgia, and Alan Cowell from London.