Biden heads to Georgia, US flashpoint with Russia »
Posted By orndorffter 5 months, 1 week ago in News
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden arrives in Georgia on Wednesday, almost a year after a war with Russia that turned the small nation on the far frontier of Europe into the epicenter of the simmering conflict between Moscow and the West.
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hyperbola5 months ago
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Well, the AP is right in line with the usual American propaganda lines. It is worth reading another viewpoint of what is going on in Ukraine, Georgia and much of central asia. Fact is, the Obama administration is continuing much the same foreign policy as the Bush administration (our elite, which chose them both, has NOT changed).
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Here is a link (courtesy of gamahuche) that is informative.
Bulgaria vs Ukraine: Don't blink
http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/TPV3/Voices.php/200...
.... This triumph of "democracy" has "made in USA" written all over it. In 200, Moscow laid out two alternate pipelines, bypassing Ukraine and Poland -- the North Stream under the Baltic Sea into Germany, and the South Stream under the Black Sea into Bulgaria and on to Europe. The government in Sofia, though a member of the EU and NATO, nonetheless signed energy agreements with Moscow in 2008. This and the gas crisis between Ukraine and Russia in January 2009 made regime change in Bulgaria essential, and the services of the US government-funded National Endowment for Democracy -- they helped overthrow the Bulgarian government in 1990 -- were clearly made excellent use of. Just a week after elections marred by vote buying (despite or due to the NED?), Bulgaria's new PM cancelled the Russian deal.
....For all the Obama hype, his advisers are really playing the same geopolitical game as Cheney and Bush. It is a clash of "civilisation", with the US the so-called civiliser and everyone else the to-be-civilised. But Iran and Russia are not as easy to "dominate or demonise", to borrow a bit of Obama-speak, as certain other countries. It will take an invasion of Iran to change Washington's dynamic with that country. And all the hot air coming from Washington will not dissipate the Russian cloud of suspicion caused by the missile bases and NATO's vow to swallow Ukraine and Georgia.
The degree of "civilisation" in the latter two countries is far from clear at present. The Georgian opposition continues to call for Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili's resignation in the wake of his disastrous war against Russia last summer. Counting on Georgia in its present mess as a key link in the Nabucco pipeline project is quite a gamble.-
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hyperbola5 months ago
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In Ukraine opinion polls reveal something quite remarkable. "If we were to fantasise, and pretend that Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin would run for the post of Ukrainian president, then according to opinion poll results he would win right off," says Alexei Lyashenko, an analyst at Kiev's Research & Branding (R) polling institute. "His only serious competitor would be Russian President Dmitri Medvedev." This is not new according to Lyashenko. Putin's rating was over 50 per cent even during the 2004 "Orange Revolution". Opinion poll results published in May indicate that 58 per cent of Ukrainians have a positive attitude toward Putin, and 56 per cent approve of Medvedev. The pro-Russian head of the opposition Party of Regions Viktor Yanukovych currently enjoys a 30 per cent approval rating, and Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko 15 per cent. A shade more than five per cent of Ukrainians would vote for the anti-Russian President Viktor Yushchenko in the upcoming elections in January of 2010. According to Kiev International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) President Valeri Khmelko, "The main reason why Medvedev and Putin score so high is the endless conflicts and score-settling in Ukrainian politics, which make the Russian politicians look good." "The Ukrainian preference for Russian state-controlled television and the desire for strong leadership in the times of crisis also play a role," said R's Lyashenko.
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A KIIS poll found that 25 per cent want full unification with Russia, and 68 per cent want an EU-style border-free regime with Russia, with Russia and Ukraine being "independent but friendly states" without a visa regime or custom controls. Polls consistently show more than half of Ukrainians are opposed to joining NATO, for which a referendum must be held in any case. "Over 90 per cent of people in Ukraine have a positive attitude toward Russia, and it has become even better over the past year," KIIS President Valeri Khmelko noted. Nor do Ukrainians have much sympathy for Yushchenko's friend Saakashvili. According to Lyashenko, 45 per cent have a negative opinion of Saakashvili, and only 11 percent have a positive one.....
http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/TPV3/Voices.php/200...
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beavith15 months ago
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hype. do you think that that cold war-speak might be from a russian web site? with, maybe, an axe to grind?
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and jesus on a jetski!!! (love that aphorism!) BIDEN? to georgia? i can't believe that i'm going to say this... why can't we send Hillary?!?
what next? Biden to panmunjon? to talk to Kim Il Sung? -
Al_FrankenberryComment removed: Hard Banned1 Reply
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gamahuche5 months ago
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FTA
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"The U.S. has pledged to support NATO membership for Georgia as well as Ukraine, but Germany and other European member states are skeptical."
Sceptical... VERY sceptical.
I imagine that a large percentage of senior European politicians are also hopping mad.
Let's see what the fallout looks like over the next few days.
I posted a story today with a similar topic, which also includes Ukraine in the equation.
http://www.propeller.com/story/2009/07/22/biden-us...
which discuses the Ukraine visit primarily also includes the following information:
"Biden on Wednesday visits Georgia, where the opposition is demanding President Mikhail Saakashvili resign over his handling of the war with Russia and what they say is his retreat from democracy."
As far as people that I would like to be involved with I would rank Saakashvili in the minus digits.
He is a highly autocratic and dictatorial leader but has some significace to Western interests in the region because of the strategic location which Georgia ocupies - which also happens to be right under the "feet" of Russia.
And Georgia's most famous son?
Josef Stalin.
Finally - this interesting manoeuvre by Biden, immediately after Obama's sojourn with the big cheeses in Moscow seems like something of a "soft cop/hard cop" operation.
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