Word: russianize
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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...
President George W. Bush jacked up Washington's response to the crisis in Georgia this morning, declaring "solidarity with the Georgian people" after a series of meetings with intelligence and national security advisers in which reports of continuing movements by Russian forces in the region raised fears that Moscow might still be pursuing military ambitions in the country. The sum effect of Bush's statements was to turn what had been a cautious approach from Washington into an aggressive one, and it raised the possibility of a sharper confrontation with Moscow...
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...
...attempt by U.S. naval vessels to deliver humanitarian aid to Poti could sharpen Washington's confrontation with Moscow and put the U.S. in the middle of the crisis. It is not clear yet where the U.S. will be delivering the aid, nor whether any Russian naval forces, rather than just Armored Personnel Carriers, are involved in blocking Poti. But the comparison to the Berlin airlift is unavoidable, and both rhetorically and practically the Administration has clearly decided to go in that direction. "We fully expect Russia to keep its word to provide free access to humanitarian assistance and allow...