Posted on 08/27/2008 12:05:40 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
Russia put the West on alert for a new Cold War that the Kremlin is ready to fight, its President said yesterday.
President Medvedev set tensions soaring when he recognised the independence of two breakaway republics inside Georgia. We are not afraid of anything, including the prospect of a Cold War, he said. Hours earlier he had ordered his Foreign Ministry to start establishing diplomatic ties with the secessionist regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
The move brought instant condemnation from the United States, Britain, France, Germany and other Western countries. President Bush appealed to the Kremlin to reconsider this irresponsible decision. David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, said that it was unjustifiable and unacceptable.
Mr Medvedev, whose troops still occupy positions in Georgia, including in the vital Black Sea port of Poti, said that he did not want a return to the Cold War, but that everything depends on the position of our partners.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
H/T to the Drudge Report....
Responding to the headline alone, it’s nice to see Medvedev finally catching-up to what Putin is doing.
more news from Russia...via London and Georgia.
There are some even here that can't even grasp the McFaul mission is the first military test of the new cold war. They don't see Poland, the Ukraine, and the former satellites as endangered.
Come November we might actually have a president who would surrender in the new cold war. At least that is what his naivete on the campaign trail would indicate (His promise to disarm nukes)
Other than titanium, I can’t think of anything we really need from the Rooskies. And if we did need some, the CIA can set up another dummy trading company and get it anyway.
So, what is their end game? I can only fathom that they percieve the American people as being so anti-confrontational that they will elect obama rather than mccain to avoid any political or military confrontation, and, they might be right.
I think he said this morning he is ready to go to War,(no mention of cold) if poland installs the missile defense we want them to.
I pray that you are right!
I fear that you are NOT!
Russian threat to Nato supply route in Afghanistan
**********************EXCERPT INTRO*****************************
Russia played a trump card in its strategic poker game with the West yesterday by threatening to suspend an agreement allowing Nato (sic) to take supplies and equipment to Afghanistan through Russia and Central Asia.
The agreement was struck at a Nato (sic) summit in April to provide an alternative supply route to the road between the Afghan capital and the Pakistani border, which has come under attack from militants on both sides of the frontier this year.
...
Mr Kabulov also suggested that the stand-off over Georgia could lead Russia to review agreements allowing Nato (sic) members to use Russian airspace and to maintain bases in the former Soviet Central Asian states of Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
I can think of no other reason to stage this now, just before the election.I also think this is a huge test of our fortitude and international standing. I guess it is good that I am not commander in chief. If it was me, I would sink every ship in the black sea fleet, send missles to every tank position in Georgia and then bomb the tunnel going through the mountains so they would be trapped like a rat as our guys took care of business, but thats just me.
Let’s see - population less than half the U.S, and shrinking by 800M a year, GNP one tenth of the U.S., oil based economy while oil production is declining, military dependent on conscription and is little motivated (apart from chasing boy scouts in Georgia), infrastructure that is falling apart (well, yes, we have that problem too). These boys are so 19th century it boggles the mind- too bad they got nukes.
If that is true Ernest, I fear that an Afghan invasion by Russia might also be in the works. If we don’t move in Georgia, they must think we would abandon Afghanistan as well. I hate to be so pessimistic but we may very well be in for a fight, or, depending who’s elected, turn tale and run.
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I often think that we should have listened to Gen. Patton.
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