Word: russian
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...Despite the different outlooks on how to respond to the Russian offensive in Georgia, what remains clear is that by acting forcefully to pummel a NATO ally on its own periphery, Moscow has changed the game and created a new reality to which the Atlantic Alliance will have to respond. Russia, in short, has now set NATO's agenda...
...diplomatic architecture of the standoff was made clear in the process of brokering a cease-fire. It was left to France and Germany to negotiate cease-fire terms with the Russians; Rice conferred with France's President Nicolas Sarkozy and then flew to Tbilisi to make clear to Saakashvili that he had no alternative but to sign a deal he clearly found unpalatable, because the U.S. was unable to bring any leverage to bear on the Russians. Newer E.U. and NATO members such as Poland, the Czech Republic and the Baltic states, who have long lived under the shadow...
...Europe is not entirely without leverage. Sarkozy warned on Monday that the E.U. would act in unison against Russian if its troops do not pull out of Georgia. Analysts believe the E.U. could stop negotiations, launched earlier in the summer, over a package of trade agreements between Europe and Russia. "Russia's economic relationship with the West is mostly based on oil and gas, but they want to diversify," says Jan Techau, head of the Europe program for the German Council on Foreign Relations in Berlin. But whether the situation demands escalating confrontation with Moscow will be the subject...
...insecurity felt along Europe's eastern edge, and is likely to reinforce support from the member states formerly dominated by the Soviet Union for Georgia and Ukraine to be granted NATO membership - a red-line issue for Russia. France and Germany have urged caution, fearing that both former Russian territories could drag the alliance into conflict with Moscow. While hawkish voices in the U.S. suggest that Russia would have been deterred from attacking Georgia had it and Ukraine been on track for NATO membership, France and Germany see things quite differently. "The current events vindicated the German and French position...
...Still, Poland is trying to take Russia's sensitivities into account. Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski confirmed that Poland would honor an earlier proposal allowing the Russians to inspect the future base. "We want to continue the dialog with the Russian side, we want them to convince themselves that the installation is not directed against them," Sikorski wrote in the Polish daily Fakt. "Because of the brutal Russian action in Georgia, emotions rule now. But when the battle axes fall, we will still be neighbors." Yet clearly uneasy ones...