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Blasts were heard and ambulances streaming out of the centre of Montenegro's capital as pro-Serb demonstrators clashed with police during a rally against Montenegro's recognition of Kosovo's independence. Some 10,000 pro-Serbian protesters took to the streets of Podgorica for a rally against the government's decision last week to recognise the independence of Kosovo, as the opposition harshly criticised the ruling coalition for "stabbing Serbia in the back." The protesters chanted "Treason! Treason!" and "Kosovo is Serbia!", as opposition leaders gave Premier Milo Djukanovic a 48 hour deadline to annul the recognition of Kosovo, or face a referendum on the issue....

GORA -- Kosovo Albanian authorities have torn down a school built from the Serbian government funds in the Gora area. Beta news agency reported on Saturday that the school, financed by the National Investment Plan (NIP), was located in the village of Mlike, inhabited by one of the province's minorities, the Goranis. Gora municipal president Alija Abdi said that citizens unsuccessfully tried to prevent bulldozers, accompanied by KFOR soldiers and Kosovo Albanian inspectors, from demolishing the premises, including new toilets and an IT classroom. The justification for this act, Abdi said, was that the reconstruction and building works on the...

Serbia's success in persuading the UN general assembly to support its application for an advisory opinion from the international court of justice (ICJ) on the legality of Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence represents a victory not only for Serbia's diplomatic endeavours in recent months, but for the rule of law and multilateralism more broadly. The decision by many EU member states not to back this initiative, however, further demonstrates the EU's contradictory attitude and approach towards matters of international law. In a bid to deter Serbia's diplomatic efforts, several attempts were made to directly link the issue to the country's...

By LOLITA C. BALDOR – 4 days ago OHRID, Macedonia (AP) — Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Tuesday said the U.S. is committed to keeping troops in Kosovo through late next year despite strong Russian opposition to creation of the world's newest country this year. Following a morning visit to Kosovo, Gates flew here to this lakeside resort in Macedonia, a neighbor that has yet to recognize Kosovo's independence. But Kosovo's president told reporters during a news conference with Gates that he was optimistic that Macedonia and Montenegro would join the nearly 50 nations that have recognized his country. Russia...

...."The work is amazing. People are already coming by," said Tumbas. "Miloje has accomplished in 12 years what it often takes generations to do." Now the walls and ceilings are covered with brightly covered religious images that represent scenes from the Bible. The birth of Jesus, the raising of Lazarus, Jesus' death on the cross. There are also drawings of saints and other holy figures that would have special meaning to the Serbian Orthodox such as St. Sava, a member of the royal family who gave up his crown to become a monk. "Iconography is considered the poor man's Bible,"...

Serbia won't recognise Georgian regions-minister Serbia will not follow Russia in recognizing breakaway Georgian regions as independent states despite Russia's support for Serbia, Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic was quoted as saying on Wednesday. "We will not do that," Jeremic said in an interview with Austrian newspaper Die Presse. Russia is a long-time Serbian ally and used its veto in the U.N. Security Council to try to block Kosovo's independence which has the backing of the United States and European powers. Moscow recognized the separatist regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states after its brief war with Georgia...

26 September 2008 Belgrade _ Movie star Robert de Niro said he might invest in Serbia’s film industry. De Niro met Serbia’s President Boris Tadic who is in New York for the UN General Assembly meeting, gathering support for Belgrade’s bid to seek the World Court’s opinion on the legality of Kosovo’s independence. “We’ve met and talked about making movies in Serbia, in studios they have there. We generally talked about a possible future cooperation, because you never know,” de Niro said. Tadic also met representatives of Sallyport, DreamWorks and Coppola movie companies. De Niro added he remembered hitch-hiking through...

Tanaskovic brought in village Druzetici daughter-in-law from Skadar, Albania. While older people are surprissed, bachelors from village are inquiring are there more girls willing to com In village. In house of tanaskovic, soon, a Albanian bride will arrive for older son, as well. Gornji Milanovac, Serbia After the long years of wishing and secretly hoping that they will finally get daughter-in-law, these days wishes came trough for felthy farmer Radic Tanaskovic(72) and his wife Dusanka. Their son Mico (36) brought in the house a bride Merita from Skadar, Albania, and with little luck, in a few month his brother Rados...

Those who have asked questions about the Srebrenica numbers over the last ten years have invariably been treated with withering scorn. At best they have been characterised as would-be revisionists; at worst, deniers of a modern-day holocaust. Yet no serious analysis of events in and around Srebrenica in the summer of 1995 could be complete without detailed examination of the numbers. From the outset the numbers were used and abused, for a variety of political and other purposes, to conceal the fundamental truth of what had happened.Origins of the massacre allegationsOver the years it has been held to be highly...

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - The UN General Assembly is to debate Serbia's call for an opinion by the International Court of Justice on Kosovo's independence, a spokesman said Friday. Enrique Yeves told AFP that the 192-member assembly approved a recommendation of its general committee to have the issue put on the agenda of the assembly's 63rd session, which formally opened Tuesday, SNIP Ethnic Albanian-majority Kosovo, a UN-run province of Serbia since 1999 when it was wrested from Belgrade's control in a NATO air war, unilaterally seceded from Belgrade on February 17. Its statehood has been recognised by 46 countries, including...

BELGRADE, Serbia: Serbian police say nationalists have attacked a gay gathering, injuring three people, including a U.S. citizen. Police official Slobodan Vukelic said Sunday that two attackers have been detained. Human rights groups say masked assailants targeted the so-called Queer Festival held Friday in a cultural center in downtown Belgrade. The groups report that an unidentified American citizen suffered a concussion and a broken arm. The statement adds that two female activists were also injured. The groups are demanding that Serbia's pro-Western government curb extremism to "show they are for democracy, rule of law and respect of human rights."

Belgrade, 19 Sept. (AKI) - Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik has said that the disintegration of Bosnia-Herzegovina, torn by internal disputes between its Muslims, Serbs and Croat population, would not be a tragedy. “The tragedy would be if such disagreements evolve into violence,� Dodik told Radio Free Europe. Thirteen years after the 1992-1995 civil war, the mistrust and quarrels between the three ethnic groups have not subsided and are on the rise again ahead of the 5 October municipal elections. For the past thirteen years, majority Muslims with the support of the international community, have been pressing for the creation...

September 17, 2008 SERBIANNA Serbian infants, some in incubators, are on a verge of death because of lack of oxygen that is deliberately held back until Kosovo Serbs recognize Kosovo as an independent state. "If you want your babies and elderly to live, if you want oxygen, recognize independent Kosovo," quotes a message Dr. Stojan Sekulic from the General Hospital in Gracanica received. Dr. Sekulic says that the separatist authorities in the province have seized oxygen bottles sent to his hospital from Belgrade and have told him that they will be delivered only when Serbs recognize Kosovo. Spokesman for UNMIK...

In the late 1990s, a crisis began to develop in the Serbian province of Kosovo. Over the years, Albanians had moved into the province in a broad migration. By 1997, the province was overwhelmingly Albanian, although it had not only been historically part of Serbia but also its historical foundation. Nevertheless, the Albanians showed significant intentions of moving toward either a separate state or unification with Albania. Serbia moved to resist this, increasing its military forces and indicating an intention to crush the Albanian resistance. There were many claims that the Serbians were repeating the crimes against humanity that were...

The Centre needs from 10 to 15 50-liter bottles of oxygen daily. The current reserves are running out and are kept for emergency cases only. The director of the Health Centre in Gracanica, Rada Trajkovic, appealed to Kosovo authorities to permanently resolve the problem of supply of medicines and medical equipment to Serb communities in Kosmet. Administration must not cause the suffering of people depending on health institutions in Serb enclaves, she said commenting on a decision of the southern Mitrovica customs to retain 10 bottles with oxygen intended for the clinical and hospital centre in Gracanica, central Kosmet, due...

The statement by Yuriy Buligin, a representative of the Russian chamber of commerce, that the ratification of the natural gas and oil agreement by the Serbian Assembly does not also mean that the construction of South Stream will begin has once more raised the question of what the actual future is of that alternative gas pipeline, which is supposed to be an energy link between Russia and Europe. Buligin's position is interpreted as an effort to occupy a better starting position on the eve of the resumption of Serbia's negotiations with Gazprom concerning the construction of South Stream and the...

Two decades have passed since the dissolution of the Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia began destabilizing southeast Europe, but there is still little reason to proclaim that the region has reached the point of no return for ethnic conflicts and wars. Until recently, many pundits blamed the unresolved issue of Kosovo as the main cause for enduring instability. Yet, even after the overwhelmingly Albanian majority in this Serbian province declared independence on 17 February, 2008—a unilateral move sponsored and micro-managed for the most part by the United States—there is no evidence that the political endgame in the region has started....

15 September 2008 Belgrade _ A Belgrade publisher says a novel described by the Islamic Community in Serbia as ‘offensive’ will appear in bookshops, reversing an earlier decision to withdraw it. Aleksandar Jasic, the director of the Beobuk publishing house, said that The Jewel of Medina by Sherry Jones will be available as of Monday and that public reaction has generally been positive. Jasic added that the book, which details the life of Aisha, “one of Prophet Mohammad’s wives,� who he married when she was 11, can be bought on street stands and at some book fairs for double the...

14 September 2008 | 13:50 | Source: Tanjug TURIN -- Former Spanish PM Jose Maria Aznar urged Brussels to tread carefully in the Caucasus. "In the case of South Ossetia and Abkhasia, the European Union must not repeat the mistake it made with Kosovo," Aznar said in Turin on Saturday. "The violation of Serbia's territorial integrity on the grounds of ethnic criteria was a serious mistake," Aznar, who heads the Spanish Foundation for Social Studies and Analyses, told an international conference and added that as a result, Russia had been brought into a good position to support the independence of...

Serbian Minister of Foreign Affairs Vuk Jeremic will travel to the United States to meet with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. During the visit to the US, the Minister will repeat Serbia's position that the unilateral declaration of independence by Kosovo-Metohija is unacceptable to Serbia. He will present the elements of Serbia's legal initiative before the UN General Assembly. The government yesterday authorised Jeremic to meet with the US Secretary of State, which is in line with provisions of the Action plan adopted by the previous government.

President Sejdiu also added that "Islam in the Republic of Kosovo has played an important role for centuries in becoming an example of tolerance, peace and love between all ethnic and religious groups." In a letter sent to Grand Mufti Naim Tërnava, President Sejdiu wrote: "Today, we all feel happy because this is the first time Kosovo observes this important Muslim holy month as an independent and sovereign nation. The contribution of all citizens of Muslim creed, particularly the Islamic community of Kosovo and its Grand Mufti Naim Tërnava’s contribution and commitment towards building a democratic independent and sovereign state...

11 September 2008 Pristina _ There appears to be no respite in the high number of suicides in Kosovo, with 25 cases registered in the first six months of this year, the Kosovo Police says. In a press release issued on Wednesday, the police said 25 people have committed suicide between January and July 2008, while another 105 people have attempted to take their life. According to police statistics, most of the suicides happened in the Pristina region, while most of the victims are over 40 years old. More than 400 suicides have been recorded in Kosovo between 2000 and...

The photograph substantiates reports that in late August, 2006, McCain celebrated his 70th birthday aboard a yacht, the Celine Ashley, rented by A-list con man Raffaello Follieri and his then-movie star girlfriend Anne Hathaway. Follieri, who posed as Vatican chief financial officer in order to win friends and investments, pleaded guilty Wednesday in a Manhattan district court to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, eight counts of wire fraud and five counts of money laundering. As part of the plea, Follieri admitted to misappropriating at least $2.4 million of investor money and redirecting it to foreign personal bank accounts that were...

Boy, 5, blew £60,000 at shops A five-year-old boy went on a £60,000 shopping spree after finding a fortune in cash in his dad's safe. The boy took a gang of friends to a shopping mall and blew the lot on clothes, toys, bicycles, sweets, computers and games. His father Slobodan Markovic, a Serbian businessman, kept the money in a safe at home, only realised what had happened when his son and his friends came home with dozens of shopping bags.

Russia has strengthened its grip on Europe's energy supply after Serbia's parliament ratified a deal that gives Moscow control of the country's oil and gas industry as well as allowing it to lay a controversial pipeline across Serb territory. Trying to balance its national interest between the West and the East, MPs also agreed to set Serbia on the path towards membership of the European Union. The passage of both bills by large majorities reflects the difficulties faced by Serbia's pro-western government in seeking integration with Europe while maintaining its historic ties with Russia, seen by many Serbs as their...

Barack Obama, the Democratic Party’s candidate for US president, indulged in a campaign swing through Europe. His vice-presidential running partner, Joe Biden, if tempted to do the same, may as well avoid Belgrade. Memories run deep in the Balkans, but among Serbian nationalists, uppermost on their minds is that long-term senator and foreign policy committee figure Biden was strongly in favour of the 1990s bombing of Belgrade. Popular Serbian newspaper Blic reminded its readers on August 28 that Biden was one of those who proposed resolution on bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999. “He also believes that all changes in Serbia...

Memories run deep in the Balkans, but among Serbian nationalists, uppermost on their minds is that long-term senator and foreign policy committee figure Biden was strongly in favour of the 1990s bombing of Belgrade. Popular Serbian newspaper Blic reminded its readers on August 28 that Biden was one of those who proposed resolution on bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999. “He also believes that all changes in Serbia are the result of pressure from Washington.� The newspaper quoted Obrad Kesic, an analyst in the US of Serbian origin, as saying the choice of Biden was especially bad for Serbia. “I am...

Dnevne Novine Press 24 Aug 08 Halyard English Translation from Serbian RAVNA GORA MEN RESCUED 660 AIRMEN The American Air Attaché to the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade, Lt Col John Cappello, USAF, speaks about the Halyard Mission that was led by General Draza Mihailovich in WWII and presents the little known story about the achievements of the Pranjani villagers in Serbia. At the beginning of May 2008 at the American Corner in Kragujevac a very specific exhibition of photographs was opened. Its title was the “Air Bridge”. The citizens of Serbia had an opportunity for the first time to be...

28 August 2008 Belgrade _ The French Foreign Minister says Serbia has a right to seek a world court ruling on the legality of Kosovo’s independence but warned the EU would not fully accept it. In a statement to Serbia’s state news agency Tanjug in Paris, Bernard Kouchner warned that “if eventually the International Court of Justice will consider the case, something I am not certain about, it would have to take into account all relevant elements.� “Do not forget that are international agreements, the United Nations and international community stand (on the issue)… The court will take all of...

Vienna, August 26 – The Kremlin’s claim that Moscow has the right to unilaterally recognize Abkhazia ad South Ossetia because of the West’s recognition of Kosovo has left Serbia, a traditional friend of Russia and the supposed victim of that Western action, in a difficult position, one likely to drive Belgrade ever further from Moscow and ever closer to the West. In an essay posted on the Polit.ru portal today, Sergei Romanenko, a senior scholar at the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Economics, notes that developments in the Caucasus over the last month and Moscow’s involvement in and response...

"The Western world has assisted in the establishment of the Kosovo state, while we anticipate the Islamic world to assist Kosovo strengthening its statehood position in the international arena," said the Grand Mufti of Kosovo, Naim Tërnava, in a meeting with Arab civic leaders during the conference "Kosovo and Arab world" which is taking place in Prishtina. Speaking of the Islamic countries' recognition process of Kosovo independence, Mufti Tërnava stressed that he anticipates seeing the contribution of the Arab intellectuals, publicists, civic leaders and friends in the Islamic world to influence the recognition of Kosovo independence. Mufti Naim Tërnava informs...

K osovo parliament speaker Jakup Krasniqi is participating at the Democratic Party Convention in the United States. Krasniqi has met in separate meetings Speaker of the House of Representatives of the United States Congress, Nancy Pelosi, former US Secretary of State Madeline Albright, and with his counterparts from other world countries participating at the Democrats' Convention in Denver, Colorado. Krasniqi met the heads of parliaments of Bolivia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Georgia, Nigeria, Ecuador, Guinea Bissau, Haiti, Jordan, Senegal, Liberia and Niger. In these meetings with presidents of parliaments Krasniqi told his counterparts about the current political processes in Kosovo and asked...

R ecognition of Kosovo by the Arab countries is a matter of months, said yesterday in Prishtina the researcher of Islamic Studies, Ridvan Al Sayed. At the international conference "Kosovo and the Arab world," held in Prishtina yesterday, Al Sayed said that there is no reason for Arab countries not to recognize Kosovo. Whereas other participants stressed the need for a higher preparation of the Kosovo high state institutions to seek recognition by countries that have not done this yet. Kosovo expects recognition by Arab countries, which have an important role in this process, was the conclusion by the attendees....

<p>If Russia recognises Georgia's breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia then the West's backing of Kosovo's independence move this year will have played a key role, according to analysts.</p> <p>Russia's upper house of parliament will meet in emergency session Monday to discuss recognising the independence of the rebel Georgian regions.</p>

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Serbia's foreign minister said the link is clear — U.S. and Western support for Kosovo's secession from Serbia has helped fuel tensions in Georgia's separatist province of South Ossetia. Minister Vuk Jeremic was quoted by the Vecernje Novosti daily on Thursday as saying the recognition of Kosovo's independence on Feb. 17 by the United States and its NATO allies has "destabilized" other parts of the world. "We have pointed out to the international community from the very start that the unilateral declaration of independence by Kosovo could present a dangerous precedent," Vuk Jeremic was quoted as...

Belgrade, 20 August (AKI) – Two Serbian government ministers on Wednesday visited the grave of Slobodan Milosevic to pay respects to the former president on the anniversary of his birth. Zarko Obradovic and Milutin Mrkonjic, the Education and Infrastructure ministers from Milosevic's Socialist Party, laid a wreath on the tombstone of the late autocratic leader in his hometown, Pozarevac, east of Belgrade. The Socialists joined forces with their former bitter rivals, the Democratic Party of President Boris Tadic, to create a coalition government on 7 July. Obradovic, Education Minister, said that his party needed to "point out the values" once...

20 August 2008 Belgrade _ Slovakia’s Prime Minister says his country will not recognise Kosovo’s independence anytime soon nor will it recognise Kosovo’s new passports. Speaking to Slovakia’s STA agency, Robert Fico added Slovakia would not recognise Kosovo’s passports because “it would be ridiculous not to recognise the state, but to recognise the passports.� Kosovo introduced new passports on July 30, and so far they have been accepted by many countries, including Macedonia which has not yet recognised Kosovo as an independent state, Read more: http://balkaninsight.com/en/main/news/12194 “In the case of Kosovo as an independent state, international law has been seriously...

BUCHAREST, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- What happened with Kosovo foreshadows a similar direction in South Ossetia, the visiting Romanian President Traian Basescu said on Wednesday in Chisinau. "At present, sovereign and independent countries are dismantled in the name of collective rights of the minorities," Basescu said when talking with his Moldovan counterpart Vladimir Voronin. "This is what happened with Kosovo and Serbia lost a part of its territory, and the things foreshadow a similar direction in South Ossetia and, should I dare say it, in Abkhazia," the Romanian president stressed. "You know that Romania is among the countries that did...

S erbia's government has intensified its activity in buying out the property of Albanians in northern section of Mitrovica, a city in the Republic of Kosovo, says Mitrovica Mayor Bajram Rexhepi. Rexhepi expressed his concern about the attempts of Serbia's government to buy out the properties with Albanian owners in the neighborhood Kroi i Vitakut in northern Mitrovica by offering very high prices. He said that at the Security Council meeting will be insisted for this to stop. "Although the trading of property is the right of owners, we will insist to stop this trade, because it is politically motivated...

The Serbian publisher of Sherry Jones's controversial novel about the child bride of Muhammad has been withdrawn the book following protests from an Islamic pressure group. Publisher BeoBook yesterday pulled 1,000 copies of Jones's The Jewel of Medina from bookshops across Serbia and apologised for its publication. Last week Random House US dropped the book from its schedule after being warned by academics and security experts that it posed a potential threat worse than the publication of Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses and the Danish publication of cartoons of Muhammad. Serbia was the first country in the world to publish...

15 August 2008 Serbian defence officials denied selling weapons to Georgia, after Russia said assault rifles made in country’s arsenal Zastava were used in the recent conflict in South Ossetia. A defence ministry official said the weapons were most likely sold to Georgia by one of the other former Yugoslav republics, such as Bosnia and Herzegovina. The M70 assault rifle is an improved copy of former Soviet Kalashnikov AK47. Both share the same caliber of 7.62x39 mm, but the Yugoslav version has an integral rifle grenade sight and is of much better quality. --- n 2007, workers from Zastava Oruzje...

Compare, for instance, the geese of Kosovo and South Ossetia. Slobodan Milosevic's goose ended up percolating on the stove of an international tribunal in The Hague, with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization stirring the pot. The Serb leader escaped being a convicted war criminal only by dying before the end of his trial. Having jumped from the sinking ship of communism to the leaky lifeboat of patriotism in the early 1990s, Milosevic tried but couldn't prevent the disintegration of Yugoslavia. He then attempted to stave off the disintegration of Serbia by resisting the secession of Kosovo, a province with an...

AT THE VOICE OF AMERICA during the Cold War some of the most troublesome employees were those who broadcast daily to the Soviet Union and its satellite states, in Russian, Azeri, Georgian, Ukrainian, Serbo-Croatian, and so on. These staffers were often émigrés--well-educated, sometimes understandably bitter men and women whose attitudes had been formed by a Communist political system in which errors in judgment or action brought disproportional punishment, while rewards could derive from deep, back-channel manipulation of appearances and an avoidance of responsibility. ("Deny everything, make counter-allegations" seemed the guideline in discussions with senior managers. "I didn't do it. He...

Aug. 9, 2008 (EIRNS)—Following his service to his British masters in the Balkan wars of 1990-91, George Soros convened a series of meetings inside Serbia, that were to launch the "Rose Revolution," the "Orange Revolution," and the series of phony democracy insurgencies designed to undermine nation-states and create a "ring around Russia" for a future British-inspired confrontation. One of the key operations run by Soros, as indicated in a LaRouche Political Action Committee press release, "LaRouche Denounces `Obama's Godfather' George Soros," was to topple Georgia President Eduard Shevardnadze, and bring in Mikhail Saakashvili, the Colombia University-trained project of Soros's "Open...

World War II Navy vet Arthur Jibilian, whom I have profiled somewhat and who spent the greater part of his life trying to clear the good name of Draza Mihailovic and extract gratitude rather than war-making from our nation for the Serbian nation, is dying of Leukemia. His doctor has given him a maximum of six months, which he will be spending with his family, seemingly confident that his beloved America will one day get back on the right foot with the nation it has so wronged, Serbia. Below are his two most recent letters to me:Dear Julia,If you do...

Time to give the green light to our Albanian friends to expand itself into Serbia proper (just beyond the kosovo border). Also time to start putting more forces into Eastern Europe, bring back our strategic bomber force, and give the green light for Israel to decimate Israel. Lets give Russia its "proxy wars".

Supporting independence movements can have disastrous consequences.For the coolest composure while going to war, the gold medal goes to Vladimir Putin. The Russian prime minister maintained his characteristic calm during Friday's Olympic opening ceremony in Beijing -- giving a firm salute to the Russian athletes marching by -- while he arranged for another kind of march into the disputed territory of South Ossetia. It's clear that Putin considers this payback time, not only for Georgia, Russia's meddlesome neighbor to the south, but for President Bush. In February, Bush and most European leaders backed the independence of Kosovo from Serbia, which...

A Quiz on World Affairs With the end of the Cold War, a Communist country, which had been organized along federal lines into constituent republics, dissolves into those republics, with each becoming a sovereign nation. In one of those republics, there is a province in which (partly due to population shifts during and just before the Communist era) the majority of the population is ethnically distinct from the now-independent republic. In that province there is a strong separatist movement engaged in an armed insurrection that has taken effective control of much of the province. As a result, the province has...

In this war, Russia won, Georgia lost, and US was resoundingly defeated Orly Azoulay Published: 08.13.08, 23:29 / Israel Opinion 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...

The Russian invasion of Georgia has not changed the balance of power in Eurasia. It simply announced that the balance of power had already shifted. The United States has been absorbed in its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as potential conflict with Iran and a destabilizing situation in Pakistan. It has no strategic ground forces in reserve and is in no position to intervene on the Russian periphery. This, as we have argued, has opened a window of opportunity for the Russians to reassert their influence in the former Soviet sphere. Moscow did not have to concern itself...