Russian UN ambassador Vitaly Churkin said in the UN Security Council that according to them, the French-brokered ceasefire allows Russian troops to stay in a buffer zone on the Georgian side of the South Ossetian border indefinitely and with no limitations, contrary to what Condi Rice had to say about the matter. He also refused to OK the languange in the document about Georgia's 'territorial integrity' said that Abkhazia and South Ossetia were not going to be returned to Georgia no matter what and that if the present UN draft was put to a vote, Russia would veto it.
What a surprise, eh? Apparently I appear to have a little more savvy in these matters then our Secretary of State or the US State Department!
The Russians aren't going anywhere. And reportedly, when Sarkozy called to complain to Russian president Dimitry Medvedev about the Russain non-withdrawal, Medvedev answered by telling Sarkozy that the pullout might be started by Friday,but that the Russians were only going to pull back to a buffer zone along the South Ossetian and Abkhazia border.
And the Russians are busily changing the facts on the ground to make sure it stays that way.
Aside from the wholesale blockade of the port of Pori, where the Russians hav eessentially stolen anything not nailed down, they are fortifying a buffer zone on the Georgian side of the South Ossetian border and Russian checkpoints now block the main east-west highway which links Tbilisi with the Black Sea ports.
The Russians have also closed Georgia's land border with both Russia and Azerbaijan..which places Georgia under what amounts to a blockade.
Meanwhile, our European allies are doing a particularly craven dance on the matter. While the US and NATO's Baltic members want membership for Georgia and theh Ukraine speeded up, NATO's western European members contented themselves with merely promising to establish a NATO-Georgia Council to strengthen ties — rather than full membership.
Meanwhile they sternly issued a statement promising "no business as usual with Russia"... which Russia's ambassador to NATO,Dimitri Rogozin quite accurately called "empty words."
With nothing behind them, that's exactly what they are.
It might just be time for the US and New Europe to reassess NATO.
1 comment:
"It might just be time for the US and New Europe to reassess NATO." I think you are correct. As I have been saying for quite some time, unless something radically changes NATO is dead. If New Europe and the Baltic states want some kind of defense pact with the Americans, it will have to be negotiated directly with the Americans. In otehr words, cut the NATO middle man out. Truthfully I never really liked NATO any way. It had become nothing more than a way for Europe to use the American military any way that it saw fit.
The baltic states and New Europe have to be asking themselves some serious questions. Georgia was a de facto member. They were attaced. NATO did not come to their aid. Specifically they have to be asking themselves can America be trusted? I wish I could say they can trust America but this would not be true.
I think a better bet is for them to band together and make their alliance with each other the primary deterrent to Russian aggression. In other words, having an alliance with America, while it might be nice while it lasts, is not something they should put their trust in.
Also, Western European members have to be looking at America's rather feeble response to Russia's actions. They ahve to be asking themselves if they can trust the Americans. If they think they cannot, this might encourage them to engage in even more attempts by them to appease the Russians than we are already seeing.
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