Word: moscow
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Biden's trip to Ukraine and Georgia was designed to balance Obama's Moscow visit. Washington wanted to reassure Russia's two neighbors that the U.S. has not forgotten them or their bids to join NATO without unduly annoying Moscow. (Read "Obama Treads Lightly on Democracy in Russia...
...balancing act was always going to be a tough one. Moscow has long opposed NATO expansion and what it views as U.S. interference in its traditional backyard. So when, on the eve of Biden's visit, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili reportedly said he was negotiating a new arms deal with the U.S., Moscow grumbled. "We will continue to prevent the rearming of Saakashvili's regime and will take concrete measures against this," said Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin. "We have deep worries regarding the activity of the Georgian leadership over remilitarizing its country, which several states are responding...
...wants to be able to say that it supports Georgia's goal, safe in the knowledge that the Europeans, who blocked it even when Bush pushed hard, will not allow it to happen. The Western European NATO countries see Saakashvili as unstable and impetuous, and blame him for presenting Moscow with a pretext for its military humbling of Georgia...
...Moscow's idea of what influence means may well be different from Washington's. Nations should be allowed to choose their partners, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko said, but "it is important that this be done transparently, without under-the-carpet games and not at the expense of others' interests." United Russia's Markov said Russia does not want a sphere of influence, but that historically, Russia has a "privileged interest" in Georgia and Ukraine and that in order for U.S.-Russian relations to be reset, "the U.S. has to recognize Russia's legitimate interests - that Russia...
Biden tried to reassure Ukrainian and Georgian leaders that better U.S. relations with Moscow could benefit their countries. "The more substantive relationship we have with Moscow, the more we can defuse the zero-sum thinking about our relations with Russia's neighbors," he said during a speech in Kiev. He also called on Yushchenko and Georgia's Saakashvili to heal rifts with their respective opposition parties and upbraided Ukraine and Georgia for the political infighting that has slowed reform...