It's really not possible to take Bush seriously these days When Georgian troops attacked in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin wanted to invade Georgia, hang President Saakashvili, and set up a new government in Georgia. He was dissuaded when French president Nicolas Sarkozy pointed out that it was the sort of thing George W. Bush would do: The Russian...

President Dmitry Medvedev moved yesterday to entrench the current Russian leadership's grip on power by proposing a presidential term that would extend the stint in office from four to six years.Medvedev said the extension was necessary to guarantee stability and help Russia deal with huge global challenges. But critics said the proposal was further evidence of Russia's alarming and rapid drift towards authoritarianism.This morning's Vedomosti newspaper, citing Kremlin sources, said that Medvedev could resign from his post as early as 2009 - paving the way for Vladimir Putin, currently the prime minister, to come back to the Kremlin.Putin stepped down as president in May, when he handed over to Medvedev, his handpicked successor. Under this scenario Putin could get his presidential job...

The mayor of a Georgian town near the separatist region of Abkhazia is killed in an explosion, the interior ministry...

[This post is part of a series by Sam running at normblog on Mondays. The first post of the series is here, and the previous post here.] 7. Nationalism I'd like now to talk a bit about nationalism. Nationalism the world over is prone to myths and violence, although it also responds to some deep human needs. We can get a clearer view of the Israeli/Palestinian debate if we put it in the context of nationalism more generally. We'll also see more clearly how much - for better and for worse - the two sides have in common. 'Nationalism' is the name of a kind of political ideology, and it's not a synonym for 'patriotism'. (The United States, where people trumpet their patriotism all the time, is not a nationalist country at all: in fact few people here understand the idea.) It is a...

No-one on the inside expected big progress at the Geneva talks on the Georgian War and its aftermath.  But probably no-one on the outside quite expected the comings and goings, in various states of huff, of the different delegations walking out of plenary sessions and working groups. The Council conclusions refer to Russian withdrawal of troops from the buffer zones around South Ossetia and Abkhazia.  That is a welcome step towards fulfilment of Russian commitments made to President Sarkozy.  The talks were a first step to a political process that commands confidence.  To the extent that there is a date for a second meeting planned for November they were not a failure.  To the extent that they aired emotion, they allowed people to get off steam.  But they...

The Sydney Morning Herald, reporting on the international meeting in Evian:Adrian Blomfield in MoscowOctober 10, 2008The President of Russia has called on Europe's leaders to create a new world order that would minimise the role of the United States.[...]Gone was the kind of wartime rhetoric that saw Mr Medvedev lash out at the West and describe his Georgian counterpart, Mikheil Saakashvili, as a "lunatic". Instead Mr Medvedev spoke of a Russia that was "absolutely not interested in confrontation", and outlined plans for a new security pact to ban the use of force in Europe.[...]While Russia has insisted it was not intending to supplant NATO, Mr Medvedev made it clear that the US-dominated alliance was partly responsible for the war in the Caucasus by its failure to rein in Georgian...

Vladimir Putin says the decision on how many Russian troops stay in South Ossetia and Abkhazia will not involve Western...

Russia signs treaties with the breakaway Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, pledging military...

The Liberal Democrats today called on Britain to push for a strong EU response to the Georgian conflict, including the possibility of sanctions if Russian aggression continues.An emergency motion introduced by the party's Shadow Foreign Secretary, Edward Davey - Condemns Russia's invasion and occupation of South Ossetia and Abkhazia and its unilateral recognition of their independence Calls for Russia to withdraw its forces from all parts of Georgia to their 7 August positions Calls for any further Russian aggression to be met with targeted sanctions such as visa restrictions Proposes that the prospect of NATO membership be held open to Georgia and Ukraine, but only when existing territorial disputes have been resolved and NATO countries can credibly deliver on their defence...

Russia's foreign minister says on a visit to Abkhazia that Moscow's actions in the region were the only way to guarantee...

Moscow says troops will stay in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, day after agreeing to exit other Georgian...

Russia announces that some 7,600 troops will remain in the breakaway Georgian regions of South Ossetia and...

Georgia's president cautiously welcomes Russia's planned troop withdrawal from areas around South Ossetia and...

Seems the only rationale for Nicaragua - in the person of Daniel Ortega - to have decided to join Mother Russia in extending diplomatic recognition to South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Can't see that going down well on the North side of the Rio Grande, frankly....I doubt that Nicaragua will go so far as to open embassies in Sukhumi or Tskhinvali. Note the retina-burning quality of the South Ossetian flag:That's a white stripe at the top, by the way. One for that splendid New Zealander who hosts the Flag rating website to take a look at, I...

This article appears in Democratiya (number 14). Russia, it was said, was still reeling from the loss of its empire. It had formally accepted the right of countries like Ukraine to self-determination. But among its leaders, some sought ways to bring the “near abroad” back into the fold. As a result, all the countries on Russia's borders were actively seeking the protection of European powers and America. This, in turn, was interpreted by the Kremlin as a kind of encirclement. Tensions with Poland were running expecially high. And then the Russian army invaded Georgia. The response of the trade union movement and the democratic Left was swift – universal condemnation of a blatant act of aggression, an obvious attempt to seize control over a country whose independence Russia...

Deutsche Welle is telling us that an emergency EU meeting Monday in Brussels on how to respond to Russia's recognition of the Georgian breakaway provinces of Abkhazia and South Ossetia "could be instrumental in confirming the EU as a force for peace."If this is supposed to be an example of serious journalism, one can only stand back and wonder. On the one hand, the EU has no military forces at its disposal and cannot intervene physically in the region. It is thus totally reliant on its "soft power".On the other hand, though the good offices of France's foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, we learn that the EU has ruled out sanctions against Russia.We also know why the EU will not take any firm action in this respect. Whether an inspired leak or not, the threat of Russia withholding gas...

Georgia is to cut diplomatic ties with Russia, days after Moscow recognised South Ossetia and Abkhazia as...

Since the Russians launched their well-planned war against Georgia on August 8th, there have been several opportunities for Russia to reduce the increasing tension with NATO. However, at every stage, the Russian Federation has played hardball. Firstly they have failed to implement the August 15th ceasefire agreement which they themselves signed- keeping their troops well inside Georgia proper. The Russian army has looted the port of Poti and stolen not only Georgian property, but also the property of several other nations too. The have repeatedly attacked rail and road links and have successfully disrupted oil transit from Azerbaijan to the West. As humanitarian aide comes into the only functioning port under Georgian control- Batumi- Russian naval vessels have harassed the incoming...

In Wednesday's Wall Street Journal Bret Stephens’s column argued something we have been saying on this blog for a long time: Russia’s flaying about and bullying neighbouring smaller and weaker countries are not a sign of strength, no matter what most of the media repeats ad nauseam; it is a sign of weakness.Putin, supposedly the strong man of Russia and of the whole Eurasian sphere, has demonstrated his and his government’s weakness on a number of occasions, in the international and, more importantly, the domestic arena. 'In Russia," wrote the great scholar of Russian imperialism Dietrich Geyer many years ago, "expansion was an expression of economic weakness, not exuberant strength."Keep this observation in mind as Vladimir Putin and his minions bask in the glow of Western magazine...

An interesting report from Associated Press says China and four Central Asian nations have rebuffed Russia's hopes of international support for its actions in Georgia. The Shanghai Co-operation Organization issued a statement today denouncing the use of force and calling for the respect of every country's territorial integrity.The report later says:Russian President Dmitry Medvedev had appealed to the Asian alliance, which is made up of China, Russia and four ex-Soviet Central Asian nations, for unanimous support of Moscow's response to Georgia's "aggression."But the alliance, which was created in 2001 to improve regional co-ordination on terrorism and border security, opted to take a neutral position and urged all sides to resolve the conflict through "peaceful dialogue.""The...

"If there were any doubt that the rules of the international game have changed for good, the events of the past few days should have dispelled it. On Monday, President Bush demanded that Russia's leaders reject their parliament's appeal to recognise the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Within 24 hours, Bush had his response: President Medvedev announced Russia's recognition of the two contested Georgian enclaves. The Russian message was unmistakable: the outcome of the war triggered by Georgia's attack on South Ossetia on August 7 is non-negotiable - and nothing the titans of the US empire do or say is going to reverse it. That this month's events in the Caucasus signal an international turning point is no longer in question.What is clear is that America's unipolar moment has...

well, I don't see millions marching through Europe's cities with banners saying that. But Russia has invaded Georgia and continues to occupy its territory. I stand with Georgia and against Russia on this. The government of Georgia may well be a bunch of gangsters. I suspect they are. But that's not the point. Where I differ with Europe's leaders is in saying that Russia was wrong to recognise the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Both those regions have said they would like to be independent of Georgia. South Ossetia has in the past applied to secede from Georgia and join Russia, but Russia, it should be remembered, said no. Get out of Georgia and then we can talk about independence or secession or whatever for those regions. Oh and people are being disappeared by South...

The UK Foreign Secretary, David Miliband (pictured above), yesterday said Russia must not start a new cold war and he accused Moscow of trying to redraw the map of Europe in the wake of the war in Georgia. Miliband was speaking in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine which, like Georgia, wants to join NATO. The Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev, yesterday defied the West by recognising as independent the breakaway Georgian provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, presumably as a prelude to their eventual annexation by Russia. “The Georgia crisis has provided a rude awakening,” Miliband said in a speech to students. “The sight of Russian tanks in a neighbouring country on the 40th anniversary of the crushing of the Prague spring has shown that the temptations of power politics...

The general consensus on the Georgian crisis seems to be that although Russia is behaving like a thug and is unjustified, the crisis could have been averted if only the Georgian president, Mikheil Saakashvili, had not attacked the separatist forces in South Ossetia and Abkhazia. However, Bernard-Henri Lévy writes in today's Wall Street Journal that this is not so: We know now that the...

As if the world wasn’t dangerous enough Russia is bearing it’s teeth in the face of growing opposition over it’s recent military and diplomatic actions: Russia’s relations with the west plunged to their most critical point in a generation yesterday when the Kremlin built on its military rout of Georgia by recognising the breakaway provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states. Declaring that if his decision meant a new cold war, then so be it, President Dmitri Medvedev signed a decree conferring Russian recognition on Georgia’s two secessionist regions. The move flouted UN security council resolutions and dismissed western insistence during the crisis of the past three weeks on respecting Georgia’s territorial integrity and...

Russian president Dmitri Medvedev has recognised unilateral declarations of independence by both Abkhazia and South Ossetia, some 15 years after the republics broke away from Georgia. Very clearly it is a deplorable thing when the internationally recognised territorial integrity of a state is disregarded. The dismemberment of a state, or the attempted dismemberment of a state, cannot be applauded.However, whilst two wrongs do not make a right, it has been pointed out several times on this site that Kosovo formed a precedent which would encourage separatist regions to declare independence, and, specifically in the cases of several frozen conflicts in the former Soviet Union, would encourage Russia to respond by affording recognition of its own. Saakishvili’s attempt to bombard South...

Fresh from the clogged tubes of teh intarwubs… Russia: we are ready for a new cold war "We are not afraid of anything, including the prospect of a new cold war," Medvedev said. "Russia is a state which has to ensure its interests along the whole length of its border. This is absolutely clear." Oh, f*ck, here we go. Tagged with: Russia • Georgia • Ossetia • Abkhazia • cold-war • conflict • oil-war • shitstorm • Neanderthals: not stupid, just different "The established view of Neanderthals as backward, primitive, ape-like creatures is challenged today by new research showing they used stone tools as successfully as early humans." Tagged with: archaeology • anthropology • evolution • Neanderthals...

a pair of darling twins, though a bit on the small side (populations 70,000 and 250,000 respectively), and perhaps not with a terribly appealing prognosis. In fact, one might...

Russia are doing the Kossova shuffle and recognising Ossetia and Abkhazia, and McCain is using Georgia in his campaign, this is not good. Lots of people in the break away regions seem to be pretty pleased but I wouldn’t bet on them staying that way. But culturally I find it appalling that the old guard cold warriors are seeing the chance to do it all over again. Even today there is evidence of the military industrial power that demands it’s pre-eminent entitlement to public wealth- FT.com- Britain risks losing its influence abroad unless it makes defence a bigger priority, according to Mike Turner, BAE Systems’ chief executive. Mr Turner also warned that his company could be forced to consider leaving the UK if military spending ever declined below a “reasonable level”....

Back in December, I wrote:"Recognising an independent Kosovo will push Serbia from the Western orbit as well as creating a real chance of war. And it will set a precedent: if the rights of self-determination for Kosovan Albanians are to be acknowledged, then what about the rights of self-determination for Serbs in Bosnia, who wish to join Serbia? "And of course, what about the rights of self-determination for the citizens of Abkhazia and South Ossetia? Russia's formal recognition today of the independence of those two breakaway republics has been met with an angry response by the neocons and their lackeys. US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, said Russia's move was regrettable. She said Abkhazia and South Ossetia were part of Georgia "and it will remain so". The British foreign...