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Before the Summit, the U.S. Forgives Russia for Invading Georgia
Eurasia Daily Monitor ^ | 7/2/2009 | Pavel Felgenhauer

Posted on 07/05/2009 8:28:01 PM PDT by bruinbirdman

On Monday July 6, President Barack Obama is expected in Moscow for a summit to discuss nuclear arms control, Iran, Afghanistan the post-Soviet space and other issues. It has been announced that Obama will spend most of July 6 in formal as well as informal talks with his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev. There will be a joint press conference and a late night dinner with spouses (RIA Novosti, July 1). The two presidents will concentrate on discussing a progress report from the Russian and American negotiating teams that are working on preparing a new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) (Interfax, July 1).

~snip~

. . . It seems that in the run up to the summit the U.S. has already effectively forgiven Russia for invading Georgia, and not withdrawing its military forces from Abkhazia and South Ossetia as it appeared to have promised under a ceasefire agreement in August last year. According to Russian officials, a ministerial meeting last week of the Russia-NATO council decreed a full resumption of military and political cooperation that was suspended after the war with Georgia (ITAR TASS, June 28).

After talks last week with the Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen the top Russian military commander, the Chief of the General Staff and First Deputy Defense Minister Army-General Nikolai Makarov told reporters that it was decided that during the Moscow summit a resumption will be announced of U.S.-Russian bilateral military cooperation, broken off as a result of the August war with Georgia (VPK, July 1). After meeting Mullen, Makarov is now commanding the Kavkaz-2009 major military exercises in the North Caucasus as well as in Abkhazia and South Ossetia (EDM, June 18, 25).

Officially, Kavkaz-2009 is in essence, "antiterrorist," but the use of the air force, hundreds of tanks and a Black Sea naval task force with its top general in command does not seem to imply "terrorism" as the main target. It has also been announced that Kavkaz-2009 is to prepare the troops to fight a regional armed conflict with Georgia, which is accused of preparing a new attack on South Ossetia and Abkhazia. The Russian foreign ministry has accused the Georgians of massing troops and of acting deliberately with the West to remove the U.N. and the OSCE observer missions from Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Georgia in order to destabilize the situation (RIA Novosti, June 29). Of course, Moscow in fact used its veto power in the U.N. and the OSCE to remove these observers (EDM, July 1).

On July 7, Obama plans to have a working breakfast with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Obama will later meet the former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev (RIA Novosti, July 1). If the U.S. administration is indeed planning to seriously discuss important issues at a time of heightened international tensions, it is unclear why the Obama team has planned to spend most of the Moscow summit talking to the figurehead president Medvedev, instead of concentrating his efforts on talks with Putin who is Russia's true ruler -and the only one capable of making any things happen.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: comrades

1 posted on 07/05/2009 8:28:02 PM PDT by bruinbirdman
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To: bruinbirdman

Un-frickin-believable...


2 posted on 07/05/2009 8:30:30 PM PDT by NordP (BHO's new book, "To Serve Man/United States" --- NO NO NO....RUN....it's a COOKBOOK!)
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To: bruinbirdman

Satire...satire...satire... darn, I can’t find the satire tag.


3 posted on 07/05/2009 8:31:02 PM PDT by autumnraine (You can't fix stupid, but you can vote it out)
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To: bruinbirdman

Awww... isn’t that precious?


4 posted on 07/05/2009 8:31:02 PM PDT by Ronin (It will be helpful if Geithner can show us some arithmetic.)
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To: bruinbirdman

And will he apologize for America before the summit too?


5 posted on 07/05/2009 8:31:02 PM PDT by Think free or die ((The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money - M.Thatcher))
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To: bruinbirdman

I think has made me feel more sick to my stomach than anything he’s done.

Please God, give us the strength to get this man out of office.


6 posted on 07/05/2009 8:32:12 PM PDT by autumnraine (You can't fix stupid, but you can vote it out)
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To: bruinbirdman
why the Obama team has planned to spend most of the Moscow summit talking to the figurehead president Medvedev

Well, it's a clear progress - before that Obama has been spending most of his time talking to a teleprompter...
7 posted on 07/05/2009 8:32:52 PM PDT by alecqss
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To: bruinbirdman

Russia maybe. Sherman, NEVER.


8 posted on 07/05/2009 8:37:41 PM PDT by BigCinBigD ('When a man believes that any stick will do, he at once picks up a boomerang,')
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To: autumnraine

Is this satire?


9 posted on 07/05/2009 8:38:56 PM PDT by goodnesswins (For lease)
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To: Think free or die

Of course. We should never have let Churchill into the country to give that 1946 “Iron Curtain” speech in Fulton, Missouri. It was highly irresponsible and caused the entire Cold War.


10 posted on 07/05/2009 8:39:01 PM PDT by ameribbean expat
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To: bruinbirdman

What in the heck??? I want this cretin to stop speaking for me... I’ve been a U.S. citizen a lot longer than he has... oh, I forgot... he isn’t a citizen.


11 posted on 07/05/2009 8:46:10 PM PDT by Bravada (Wherever I Stand, I Stand With Israel!)
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To: autumnraine

Does anyone do satire on this administration anymore? In real life they routinely go beyond what anyone would find believable enough to be effective satire.

I think in this instance the real problem is the headline; I don’t think anyone came out and declared Russia forgiven; they decided that they had served their time. We can argue over whether or not that was the right decision - the opposite of what the Dems do is usually a safe stance - but the word “forgive” doesn’t really describe what happened.


12 posted on 07/05/2009 8:50:12 PM PDT by Gil4
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To: bruinbirdman

The Russians have got to be laughing their asses off thinking they’ll get anything they want from this comrade-in-arms naive Kenyan.


13 posted on 07/05/2009 8:55:19 PM PDT by A message (3 years 6 months 2 weeks)
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To: A message
"The Russians have got to be laughing their asses off thinking they’ll get anything they want from this comrade-in-arms "

No laughing on either side. It is mutual between comrades. They understand each other.

yitbos

14 posted on 07/06/2009 12:35:05 AM PDT by bruinbirdman ("Those who control language control minds.")
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To: goodnesswins

“Is this satire?”

No, but it darn sure should be!


15 posted on 07/06/2009 3:54:04 AM PDT by autumnraine (You can't fix stupid, but you can vote it out)
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