The FINANCIAL — The American Defence Secretary has said Russia will pay a price for its recent military actions in Georgia, but underlined that Washington and Moscow are not back to the "bad old" days of the Cold War.
According to The Independent — Russian warplanes had bombed a European ally of the US and revived the specter of the most tense days of the Cold War.
As he conferred again with his top advisers, George Bush yesterday delivered his toughest attack yet on Moscow, accusing it of invading a sovereign neighbor and "threatening a democratically elected government". Such behavior was "completely unacceptable to the free nations of the world", the US President declared.
Returning from her emergency visit to Tbilisi, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice flew directly to Mr. Bush's ranch at Crawford, Texas, while Robert Gates, the Defense Secretary, joined the talks by video-conference.
According to American Spectator, Europe's capitals and Washington are contorting themselves in avoiding the obvious. No matter the final outcome of the outrageously unequal political and military contest between Georgia and Russia, Moscow's gauntlet has been thrown in the face of the West in general and the United States in particular.
Russia, still effectively led by KGB-trained and experienced Vladimir Putin, decided to teach a lesson to all of its former Soviet entities and satellites, with Georgia as an example. NATO also has been sent a message in regard to any planned expansion, most particularly in Ukraine.
Among other things, the Kremlin leadership has calculated that the Russian people are prepared to accept deprivation if it is blamed on the West to a far greater extent than the Europeans can deal with life without adequate energy supplies. This is Putin's essential calculus. Russia can have its Cold War, flex its national muscle, and regain the international super power status it once had. Effectively the Kremlin is putting geopolitics before economics, American Spectator reports.
According to Financial Post, Canada, hardly a world power, should do three things immediately: Prohibit any more Russians or Russian entities from acquiring any more Canadian corporations or assets; oppose its WTO membership and join the movement to boot Russia out of the G8, that Club of Big Democracies and Free Enterprise Nations. The Putinocracy is neither a democracy nor is it a free enterprise nation. The press has been gutted, the elections were fraudulent, the rule of law has never been in place. Just ask BP, whose CEO has been booted out of the country or any number of other foreigners who have been disenfranchised unceremoniously. (Frank Stronach, Belinda Stronach and Magna and other Canadian corporations that have been bought by Russians take note.)
Russia is no longer a place to do business or to do business with.
According to The Independent, Vladimir Putin, the prime minister, has threatened to retrain nuclear missiles on Europe for the first time since Soviet times and Russia has walked away from an arms treaty that was pivotal in ending the Cold War.
On August 17, the Russians went even further. Poland faces not just the prospect of having Russian missiles pointing in its direction but also risks "100 per cent'' a military attack. And not just any attack, if General Anatoly Nogovitysn is to be believed, but a nuclear attack.
The country's deputy chief of staff explained that, under Russia's military doctrine, the Kremlin had every justification to launch a nuclear strike against Poland if the missile shield is built.
We have yet to see whether this is mere bluster. Dmitry Medvedev, the president, struck a slightly more moderate note but Mr Putin, the real power in Russia, has not yet given his reaction.
Poland, unlike Georgia, is already a member of Nato. A Russian military assault would, if Warsaw were to invoke article five of the Nato treaty, oblige the alliance's other members to come to Poland's rescue. It could be the beginning of World War III. The Independent reports.
Discussion about this post