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Tag Archives: Russia
So Ends the Kouchner Adventure
Russia wants Saakashvili gone and then categorically rejects the French ceasefire agreement Saakashvili signed. Even while the increasingly uncomfortable Medvedev says they’re all but finished with military operations. The humiliating exposure of Medvedev’s “presidency” is one of the more comical … Continue reading
Posted in Foreign affairs, Lee's Page
Tagged Cold War, Estonia, Europe, foreign policy, French, IBM, Javier Solana, Kouchner, Russia, Saakashvili, South Ossetia, Soviet Union, Tbilisi, Toomas Hendrik Ilves
1 Comment
Arms for Georgia
Evidently immune to the historical irony, Israel halted arms shipments to Georgia months ago due to fears of a Russian attack. As an IDF veteran interprets that: “When we found ourselves in a similar situation, we expected the world to … Continue reading
Posted in Foreign affairs, Lee's Page
Tagged armor, arms, arms trade, AT4, attack, C-17, Georgia, georgians, Haaretz, IDF, Interior Ministry, Israel, Javelin, missile, Operation Nickel Back, Russia, Shota Utiashvili. spokesman, South Ossetia, veteran, war, weapons, Yom Kippur War
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Found Him
Joshua hasn’t disappeared, he just isn’t gracing us with his opinions on the conflict in the Caucasus, but you can find them at Registan.net, here and here. Heh, Insty links to him, but describes it as peevish (Josh? Peevish? Also, … Continue reading
Posted in Foreign affairs, Lance's Page
Tagged Abkhazia, annexation, caucasus, conflict, Georgia, Joshua Foust, Putin, Registan, Russia, Saakashvili, South Ossetia, war
2 Comments
QandO Podcast
McQ, Dale and I discuss the Russian campaign against Georgia over South Ossetia. Generally I feel that our support should belong to Georgia. However, Georgia has severely miscalculated in this matter, and frankly our options are limited. At best, we … Continue reading
Posted in Foreign affairs, Lance's Page
Tagged Abkhazia, airspace, campaign, Dale, discuss, Georgia, Lee, McQ, NATO, negotiated settlement, peacekeeeping, peacekeepers, Putin, Russia, South Ossetia, sovreignty, US, war
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Glimpse of a Better Outcome for Georgia
When it seemed like escalation was the modal reality, outcomes looked bleak for Georgia. Dynamics change. Thus Georgia’s ceasefire in South Ossetia cannot be a bad thing under the circumstances. By putting up an initial fight, they drew the attention … Continue reading
Posted in Foreign affairs, Lee's Page
Tagged 1812, BBC, Georgia, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, Media, NATO, opinion, peacekeepers, Russia, South Ossetia, Tbilisi, war, war crimes
4 Comments
Purely a Mission of Peace
Expanding their economic target list in defiance of their own stated strategic rationales, Russia bombs the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, the Caspian oil artery to the West.
Posted in Around the Web
Tagged Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan, Caspian, economic, pipeline, Russia, West
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The “Serbian” Claim to South Ossetia
The point has been made more than once that the Russian incursion into South Ossetia is ideologically motivated as a retaliatory gesture for Kosovo independence. Wu Wei makes a fine point about why this is not plausible if so: The … Continue reading
Posted in Foreign affairs, Lee's Page
Tagged Albania, Albanians, ethnic, Georgia, identity, kings, Kosovo, Macedonia, Milosovic, Ottomans, Russia, Russians, Saakashvili, Serbia, Serbs, South Ossetia, Wu Wei, Yugoslavia
1 Comment
The Trouble with American Alliances
Always demanding when they need you, useless and even obstructionist when you actually need them. Our friend Geoff Morrell can serve as something of a personification of that characteristic in fact: Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said the Georgians had requested … Continue reading
Posted in Foreign affairs
Tagged Chinese, Geoff Morrell, Georgia, Kevlar, military, NATO, Russia, South Ossetia, veterans
2 Comments
Testy Times in the Bird’s Nest
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd witnessed a heated discussion between Bush and Putin over Georgia.
Posted in Around the Web
Tagged Australia, Bush, Georgia, Kevin Rudd, Putin, Russia, South Ossetia, war
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Achieving International Opposition
James Traub has written a magnificent survey of the events leading up to the current war in Georgia, and the personal contest between Mikheil Saakashvili and Putin.
Posted in Foreign affairs
Tagged Angela Merkel, EU, European Union, Georgia, Germany, James Traub, McCain, NATO, New York Times, Obama, Putin, Robert Kagan, Russia, Saakashvili, Ukraine, United Nations
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The Edwards Stratagem
Tom Tildrum, commenting on Ilya Somin‘s notice that the press favors the Edwards affair over the Russo-Georgian War: “The Russians may have launched their offensive after learning of the Edwards news, in order to minimize world attention.”
Posted in Around the Web
Tagged Edwards, Georgia, Ilya Somin, press, Russia, Russo-Georgian War, Tom Tildrum, war, world
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Who Owns Tskhinvali?
So who is in control of Tskhinvali right now? Russia says Russia, Georgia says Georgia, and the separatists? Take your pick: Eduard Kokoity, self-styled president of the separatist region, said a “second attempt” by Georgian forces to retake the town … Continue reading
Posted in Foreign affairs
Tagged Boris Chochiyev, Eduard Kokoity, Georgia, Reuters, Russia, South Ossetia, Tskhinvali, war
6 Comments
US Begins to Align with Georgia
Slowly the gears turn, but Washington and Tbilisi’s positions inch further into concord by the minute. The infamous “unnamed senior US official,” behind all important news events of the last century has spoken: A senior U.S. official says Russia has … Continue reading
Posted in Foreign affairs
Tagged administration, Bush, Georgia, military, Moscow, Russia, South Ossetia, Tbilisi, war
1 Comment
Peacekeeper No More
Alexander Stubb, chairman of the OSCE, states the obvious but necessary: Russia having become a combatant, can no longer serve in a peacekeeping role in South Ossetia. Which of course eliminates their rationale for intervention.
Posted in Around the Web
Tagged Alexander Stubb, Georgia, intervention, OSCE, Russia, South Ossetia
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Russian Strategic Objectives Changing?
Wu Wei believes Russia is now targeting the Nabucco gas pipeline in Georgia…while the Russian NATO envoy argues that strategic objectives are restricted to a South Ossetia protection and warns NATO to stay out. And now Iran gets into the … Continue reading
Posted in Around the Web
Tagged Georgia, Iran, Nabucco, NATO, pipeline, Russia, South Ossetia, war, Wu Wei
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Some Anonymous South Ossetia Endgame Analysis
Daniel Nexon gets an email from an anonymous Russia hand speculating on the grim possible outcomes for Georgia: This is not going to end well for Georgia. Russia has expanded its targets beyond the vicinity of South Ossetia, hitting not … Continue reading
Posted in Foreign affairs
Tagged Abkhazia, Chechnya, Daniel Nexon, Georgia, independence, Russia, Russophile, Saakashvili, South Ossetia, war
8 Comments
The Conquest of Georgia?
In an unnerving development, the New York Times is reporting that Russia may be preparing for an amphibious assault on Georgia’s Black Sea coastline. Alexander Lomaya, Secretary of Georgia’s National Security Council: “Russia has clearly decided to redraw the borders … Continue reading
Posted in Foreign affairs, Lee's Page
Tagged Alexander Lomaya, Black Sea, Georgia, Russia, South Ossetia, war, Washington
2 Comments
Choosing Sides on South Ossetia
After an ambiguous initial reaction, the State Department appears to have realized that despite whatever Russia contends, it is physically impossible for Georgia to invade its own country: “We call on Russia to cease attacks on Georgia by aircraft and … Continue reading
Posted in Foreign affairs, Lee's Page
Tagged Condoleezza Rice, Georgia, Iraq, Russia, Sergey Lavrov, South Ossetia, State Department, Tbilisi, United States, withdrawal
2 Comments
Appetites of the Empire
(image: Marcelus G. Zalotti)
Posted in Foreign affairs, Lee's Page
Tagged Abkhazia, cartoon, eagle, empire, Georgia, graphic, invasion, Russia, South Ossetia, state seal, war
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China & Russia: Models and Modalities
Francis Fukuyama chats with Robert Kagan on a number of interesting things: Flash | WMV | MP3 (via: The American Interest). Of immediate interest is Kagan’s notion that the the emergence of global multipolarity induces an imperfect, baseline bipolarity of … Continue reading
Posted in Foreign affairs, Lee's Page
Tagged authoritarianism, bipolarity, Burma, Calvin Coolidge, China, China Model, Cuban Revolution, diplomacy, eastern, flash, Francis Fukuyama, imperial, internationalism, Kremlin, Lenin, Mao, Moscow, mp3, multipoliarity, nationalism, Nikolai Bukharin, oligarchy, power, revolution, Robert Kagan, Russia, russocentrism, sinocentrism, Soviet, Soviet Union, Stalin, tibet, Trotsky, Tsarist, unification, vassal states, video, western, Zimbabwe
3 Comments
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn R.I.P.
The impact of this man on the world is not part of the memory of many today. I’ll be breaking out a few of his books this week in his memory. A true Giant has passed away. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, whose … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, History, Lance's Page, Religion and theology
Tagged Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, communism, Russia, Soviet Union
1 Comment
Investing at Home in Africa
(photo: William Bedzrah) One of the traditional problems of economic development in sub-Saharan Africa is that internal African investment dollars tend to be spent outside the continent. Thus it’s interesting to see Nigerian investment in Ghana has now reached $580 … Continue reading
Posted in Developmental economics, Economics, Foreign affairs, Lee's Page, Uncategorized
Tagged Africa, Chile, commerce, George Kumi, ghana, inflation, investment, monetary policy, Nigeria, profits, Russia, Switzerland, trade
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Russia Speaks to the American Electorate
Sober, secular and educated new residents to New Mexico can often be found painting the frames of their doors and windows a vivid bright blue. Having seen the habit practiced on the homes of locals, the newcomers invariably assume it’s … Continue reading
Posted in Foreign affairs, Lee's Page
Tagged authoritarianism, Black Sabbath, Catholic, Cold War, desert, Dmitry Medvedev, election, foreign policy, Ivan Krastev, McCain, New Mexico, Obama, Perestroika, Robert Amsterdam, Russia, secular, Soviet, United States, USSR, virgin, witchcraft
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Russia’s Long Descent Into Madness: Putin’s Russia by Anna Politkovskaya, and Putin’s Labyrinth by Steve LeVine
Over the last ten years, Russia has emerged from one of the unfortunate victims of the 1998 financial crisis to become a strong, almost fearsomely assertive country. Much of this is thanks to Vladimir Putin, a man who has won … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Foreign affairs
Tagged Anna Politkovskaya, Autocracy, Books, Reviews, Russia, Soviet, Steve LeVine
2 Comments
Airspace Violations
Cross-posted to Registan.net, which is “All Central Asia, All the Time.” Last year, Georgia was abuzz with accusations against Russia for its military jets supposedly violating its airspace and possibly even attacking radio stations. Now, Georgian officials are hopping mad … Continue reading
Posted in Foreign affairs, Military Matters
Tagged Abkhazia, Airplanes, Georgia, military, Russia, Sovereignty
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Law & State in Russia
Video of Robert Amsterdam speaking at the University of Illinois about the political-symbolic nature of Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s prosecution for fraud in 2005. The transformation of the Khodorkovsky trial into a grotesque perversion of justice is enormously revealing about the nature … Continue reading
Posted in Around the Web
Tagged 2005, Champaign, fraud, justice, Khodorkovsky, Law, privatization, prosecution, Putin, Robert Amsterdam, Russia, show trial, Soviet, University of Illinois, Urbana
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Russian Nuclear Threat Against Ukraine
Russia’s fears of NATO expansion reaching right to her western border with Ukraine, have provoked a new round of saber rattling from the Kremlin. Here’s Putin’s ominous quote, after he had just met with Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko: “It’s frightening … Continue reading
Posted in Around the Web
Tagged Kremlin, NATO, nuclear, Putin, Russia, Ukraine, Yushchenko
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The Terrible Human Toll
In the annals of excruciating misery during wartime, few events can compare with what befell Napoleon’s troops during his campaign in Russia. From Strange Maps we see the suffering and tragedy in graphic statistical form. (click image to enlarge) “The … Continue reading
Posted in History, Lance's Page
Tagged geography, Grande Armée, History, Napoleon, Russia, scorched earth, Statistics
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Soviet Disney World Reborn
With the red stars back on the MiGs, criticism of the government illegal and dissident arrests again in fashion, Soviet reversion is all the rage in Russia. Jim Hill revealed a couple of days ago that apparently Disney is in … Continue reading
Posted in Foreign affairs, History, Lee's Page, Uncategorized
Tagged authoritarianism, communism, Disney, Epcot, Putin, Russia, Soviet Union
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