Thursday, August 14, 2008
Georgia
Milliband says: "The Soviet Union doesn't exist anymore. There is no such thing as ex-Soviet space. There is a new map of eastern Europe and the border area of Russia and I believe it's actually in Russia's interest to come to terms with that. It's not in Russia's interest to continue to hanker for a Soviet past because frankly, it's gone and it's good that it's gone."
IMO: That is what I think too. Some people say that there is only a limited amount that US can do, but there seems to be a great deal they can do - if they trouble to. e.g. should Russia stay in the G8, etc. etc. It does not seem right to me that all this should drive Georgia into NATO necessarily ; Russia can't play the old Czechoslavia game without impunity now - unless it is blatently allowed to. Our best hope may be that Gates will ensure serious action is taken - much can be done - and US is not made to look like it did after the Hungarian uprising. To be fair, 'polonium Putin' seems even more absurd than Sarkozy but the French have 'negotiated with the advantage of weakness' since the days of de Gaulle. Anyway will the punters believe that Russia is basically just a very minor, cold country ? It is presumably really up to Gates now. And I don't know that it is in anyone's interests to write off Russia yet, particularly in the third world.
Milliband says: "The Soviet Union doesn't exist anymore. There is no such thing as ex-Soviet space. There is a new map of eastern Europe and the border area of Russia and I believe it's actually in Russia's interest to come to terms with that. It's not in Russia's interest to continue to hanker for a Soviet past because frankly, it's gone and it's good that it's gone."
IMO: That is what I think too. Some people say that there is only a limited amount that US can do, but there seems to be a great deal they can do - if they trouble to. e.g. should Russia stay in the G8, etc. etc. It does not seem right to me that all this should drive Georgia into NATO necessarily ; Russia can't play the old Czechoslavia game without impunity now - unless it is blatently allowed to. Our best hope may be that Gates will ensure serious action is taken - much can be done - and US is not made to look like it did after the Hungarian uprising. To be fair, 'polonium Putin' seems even more absurd than Sarkozy but the French have 'negotiated with the advantage of weakness' since the days of de Gaulle. Anyway will the punters believe that Russia is basically just a very minor, cold country ? It is presumably really up to Gates now. And I don't know that it is in anyone's interests to write off Russia yet, particularly in the third world.
# posted by uv : 4:08 PM
Subscribe to Posts [Atom]
