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| Caucasus |
| Toldja there was a deal on Georgia... |
| 2002-09-27 |
| Foreign policy analysts said Moscow could still try to strike some kind of informal deal under which it would limit its opposition to U.S. action against Iraq if Washington did the same over Russia's threat to strike bases used by Chechen rebels inside the former Soviet republic of Georgia. "If the United States presses on, it is in Russia's interests to keep action against Iraq to a minimum. But Russia wants no open confrontation with the United States," said Viktor Kremenyuk, deputy head of Russia's prestigious USA-Canada Institute. "Russian policy is in two tiers — a visible one and a hidden one. The discussions in Moscow could well include a deal on the (Georgia) issue." Steve adds: "You think? Me too!" The Russers need the Georgia problem cleared up because it's a prop to the more serious Chechen problem — the issue's not the Georgian government policies, but its incompetence and fear of the inhabitants of Pankisi. The problem with Chechnya has been that there's a certain level of sympathy in some very influential circles in the USA, like the Washington Post, where the rebels are viewed as heroic freedumb fighters against the brutish Russers. (That must be a piece the Vast Jewish Conspriracy™ that controls the Merkin corridors of power missed...) I think Bush is coming around, hopefully has come around, but I also think the Post and the NY Times are going to bitch and moan about it. Luckily, the Merkin public could care less what happens in the North Caucasus because move people have never heard of it, and even the ones who've heard of it don't have any feel for it. Shevardnadze is probably feeling a bit naked right now... |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |
| #1 If Putin and Ivanov don't go in now, then they'll never go in. |
| Posted by: Charles Tupper Jr. 2002-09-27 14:24:18 |