On Wednesday, Gen. Alexander Zelin, the commander of the Russian Air Force, announced that Moscow had deployed a state-of-the-art S-300 (SA-20 Favorit) long- range air defense system in Abkhazia, a region of the Republic of Georgia that Russia has occupied since the August 2008 war. Since then, Russia recognized breakaway Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent republics. According to Zelin, the task of the air defense systems is “to prevent violation of Abkhaz and South Ossetian airspace and to destroy any aircraft intruding into their airspace no matter what their …
MOSCOW – President Barak Obama’s decision to abandon ballistic missile defense in Central Europe will encourage Iranian truculence and will not generate Russian good will or support for the US on Iran sanctions. This is the main take-home lesson from my meetings with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, and President Dmitry Medvedev over the last week. It looks like President Obama will abandon ballistic missile deployment against Iran in Poland the Czech Republic, and adopt a different, sea-based system, which has limited application against the Iranian threat. …
TBILISI — Speaking on a special panel this morning, jointly hosted by AmCham Georgia and the think tank New Economic School, former Estonian Prime Minister Mart Laar described Georgia as “a victim of success.” Tbilisi’s rapid economic liberalization and determination to integrate into the Euro-Atlantic community through NATO and the EU is too much for an increasingly autocratic Russia to take, especially in its near abroad. Former Russian government adviser Andrei Illarionov argued a powerful case that Russia’s brutal invasion of Georgia on Aug. 7 was in fact premeditated over …
TBILISI — What should NATO do about Georgia? This question must inevitably lead to the question of what NATO should do about Russia? Since Russia’s illegal and immoral invasion of Georgia on Aug. 7, the West has failed to find an adequate answer to either question. Although Russian troops have this week left Georgia proper, they remain deeply entrenched in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, including “new” areas such as Abkhazia’s Kodori Gorge and the South Ossetian town of Akhalgori where they weren’t present before Aug. 7 The Baltic States remain …
