Word: georgians
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...This conflict has been brewing for years. Russia has deliberately instigated the breakup of Georgian territory. Moscow has promoted secessionist activities in several Georgian provinces: Abkhazia, Ajaria and, of course, South Ossetia. It has sponsored rebellious governments in these territories, armed their forces and even bestowed Russian citizenship on the secessionists. These efforts have intensified since the emergence in Georgia of a democratic, pro-Western government. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's resentment toward Georgia and its President, the U.S.-educated Mikheil Saakashvili, has seemingly become a personal obsession...
...international community has not done enough to push back. In recent weeks, a series of incidents along the fragile cease-fire lines that cut across Georgian territory helped prompt the escalation of violence, including Georgia's abortive effort to remove the "government" of South Ossetia, a small region with a population of about 70,000 people. That rash action was perhaps unwise, but it is evident from Russia's military response that Moscow was waiting for such an act to provide a pretext for the use of force. Large Russian contingents quickly swept into South Ossetia and then into Georgia...
...Georgian crisis is a critical test for Russia. If Putin sticks to his guns and subordinates Georgia and removes its freely elected President - something Putin's Foreign Minister has explicitly called for - it is only a question of time before Moscow turns up the heat on Ukraine and the other independent but vulnerable post-Soviet states. The West has to respond carefully but with a moral and strategic focus. Its objective has to be a democratic Russia that is a constructive participant in a global system based on respect for sovereignty, law and democracy. But that objective can be achieved...
More tellingly, Bush announced the first series of tangible steps from the Administration since the crisis began. He said he was dispatching Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to Paris and Tbilisi to show support for French diplomatic efforts and Georgian resistance to the Russian invasion. He also said he was ordering Secretary of Defense Robert Gates to begin air and sea delivery of humanitarian supplies by the U.S. military...
Equally forceful, and potentially more confrontational, is the humanitarian mission. Bush noted that Russian armored vehicles were blocking access to the port city of Poti and that Russia was blowing up Georgian vessels. Bush said Gates would launch a "vigorous and ongoing" humanitarian mission by both air and sea. "In the days ahead we will use U.S. aircraft as well as naval forces to deliver humanitarian and medical supplies," he said...