A war to help a struggling candidate

Well, I mentioned in my earlier posts that this Georgia-Russia conflict was very beneficial to tough talkin' 100 yr war Presidential candidate McCain. In a very recent post (see below), former German Chancelor Schroder stated that "...everyone knows that these US military advisors in Georgia exist". And if everyone does, then the Russians certainly did. In an interview with CNN, Putin makes it very clear;

"...unnamed persons in the United States provoked the conflict in Georgia in an attempt to help a candidate in the U.S. presidential election."
and

"...Moscow suspected that U.S. nationals were present in the war zone in Georgia and the Russian military produced a copy of a U.S. passport it said had been retrieved after a bloody clash between Russian troops and Georgian special forces."

Naturally, to a lot of Americans this seems ludicrous but then they're the same Americans who've accepted the last 8yrs and cannot wait for another 4. Life is all rosy for them because that is what they believe. We are good, they are bad. It must be nice to live life so simply and unencumbered.

At any rate, Russia is in no mood to be forgiving. Today, Russia stopped, or suspended rather, their military "cooperation activities" with Nato.
Russia stops co-operation with Nato allies

After all, Russia offered assistance for the Nato troops in Afghanistan;

Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, Nato Secretary General and Putin




Putin will offer NATO transit rights through Russia for supplies to NATO forces in Afghanistan at a bilateral summit dominated by the alliance's expansion plans.

The Russian offer, which will shorten some of the supply routes for the NATO-controlled 43,000-strong U.N. force, comes at a summit where Russia will try to persuade the alliance against granting a membership roadmap for Ukraine and Georgia.

Russia views the Membership Action Plans (MAP) for its neighbours as unfriendly acts which would bring NATO dangerously close to its borders.

Peskov indicated that any decision by the NATO summit on the MAPs would not affect the Afghanistan transit offer but made clear that in the long run this could affect bilateral ties.

"Cooperation on Afghanistan is a different dimension," he said. "But, NATO enlargement policy touches upon the future of the activities of the (Russia-NATO) council," he added.

"Its work is based on mutual confidence, reciprocity ... And if one dimension is missing the whole system will malfunction."

And I guess the whole system is being dismantled. No more cooperation from Russia for Nato. I wonder how difficult things will be in Afghanistan for the Nato troops.






The Afghan transit - kinda looks like a big dipper



"It is not just that the American side could not restrain the Georgian leadership from this criminal act. The American side in effect armed and trained the Georgian army," Putin told CNN in a portion of the interview that was broadcast on Russian state television. "Why...seek a difficult compromise solution in the peacekeeping process? It is easier to arm one of the sides and provoke it into killing another side. And the job is done."

Referring to Russian suspicions that U.S. citizens were actually present on the battlefield on the side of Georgian forces -- accused by Moscow of committing "genocide" during the conflict -- Putin said: "If that is true, if that is confirmed, then that's really bad. It's very dangerous and a mistaken policy.

"It that was the case, then the recent events could have a American domestic political dimension," he said in the interview. "If my suspicions are confirmed, in that case the suspicion arises that somebody in the United States has intentionally created this conflict with the aim of making the situation more tense and creating a competitive advantage for one of the candidates fighting for the post of U.S. president."