Georgia - Russia One Year Later

Georgia Draws Gains, Not Lessons, From War Moscow Times — Exactly one year after the war over South Ossetia, Georgia’s chances of becoming a NATO member have been reduced to almost zero, but the South Caucasus nation might actually be safer and is putting greater hopes into political integration with the West. Despite the fact that key European powers continue to be skeptical because Tbilisi’s standoff with Moscow remains fundamentally unsolved, President Mikheil Saakashvili is promoting his country as a regional champion. click to read complete article

Did Russia pay high price for winning Georgia war? Christian Science Monitor — Though the dispute over who started the war between Russia and Georgia has yet to abate, most experts agree that it erupted during the night of Aug. 7 with an apparently well-planned and massive Georgian attack on Tskhinvali, capital of South Ossetia, which had won its de facto independence from Georgia in a brutal civil war nearly two decades earlier. About a dozen Russian peacekeeping troops died in that assault, prompting Moscow to send its North Ossetia-based 58th Army swarming through the Roki Tunnel the next day. Russian forces rapidly routed the Georgians and went on to briefly occupy a handful of Georgian towns such as Gori, where they destroyed Georgian weapons click to read complete article

Russia urges Georgia to ink non-violence agreement Xinhua — Russia insists that Georgia assume a legal obligation on the non-use of force with respect to its breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Thursday. "We insist that Georgia take on the legal obligation on the non-use of force. The obligation should be unconditional, not in relation to Russia, but in relation to the neighboring republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia," Andrei Nesterenko told a briefing. click to read complete article