Archive for August 15th, 2008
Digest: The Daily Telegraph: Why is Vladimir Putin so scared of Georgia?
This article Anne Applebaum has first appeared in The Daily Telegraph on August 15, 2008
‘It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.” In recent days, this famous Churchillian pronouncement on Russia has echoed through many an analysis. In particular, Vladimir Putin - former Russian president, current Russian prime minister, the man still clearly in charge of the country - has been held up as a great puzzle. →
The Guardian: The bear’s Achilles heel
Charles Grant
The Guardian, Friday August 15 2008 22:00 BST
For many American commentators, plucky little Georgia has been the victim of Russian imperialism. The Guardian’s Seumas Milne takes an equally simplistic view: Russia is blameless for a war caused by US “expansion”. Both schools of thought agree that Russia has been the conflict’s big winner. In the long run, I am not so sure. Russia has much more to lose from a period of frosty relations with the west than either the Americans or the Europeans.
Russia’s Achilles heel is its economy. This has been growing fast, at over 7% a year. Wealth has spread out from the energy companies and the government, helping to create a prosperous middle class. But the economy remains dangerously dependent on energy and raw materials. Russia has very few high-tech industries, its record on innovation is appalling, it has too few small and medium-sized companies and its service industries are backward.
Fitch sees worse threats to Ukraine than Russia row
By Peter Apps
LONDON, August 15 (Reuters) - Credit ratings agency Fitch does not yet see rising tension with Russia as a major threat to Ukraine’s creditworthiness, it said on Friday, but remains concerned about a series of stresses in the Ukrainian economy.
The aftermath of conflict between Georgia and Russia has seen a deepening row between Ukraine and its larger neighbour over the use of a Ukrainian port by Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, prompting investors to price its debt as riskier.
“It’s not one of our key worries for the rating at this stage,” Fitch director of emerging Europe sovereigns Andrew Colquhoun. “We are more worried about the current account deficit, rising external debt levels and inflation.”
Digest: FDI risks becoming a casualty of war
By Rachel Morarjee in London
Digest: The Washington Post: Russia’s Ominous New Doctrine?
Russia has been justifying its rampage through Georgia as a “peacekeeping” operation to end the Tbilisi government’s “genocide” and “ethnic cleansing” of South Ossetia. That terminology deliberately echoes U.S. and NATO language during their 1999 bombing campaign against Serbia, which resulted in the independence of Kosovo. →
Digest: Moscow can’t be trusted
Article Moscow can’t be trusted.To stop Russia, the west must honour the words of freedom on which I have staked Georgia’s fate by Mikheil Saakashvili was published August 15 2008 in guardian.co.uk →
Digest: CNN: Bush warns Russia over Georgia ‘bullying’
TBILISI, Georgia (CNN) — U.S. President Bush on Friday chided Russia for Cold War-style behavior in its territorial conflict with Georgia, accusing it of “bullying and intimidation” as international pressure grew on Moscow to withdraw its troops from the region.
Новости: BBC: Райс прилетела в Тбилиси с поддержкой
This post will probably be in English soon. Now you can read it in Russian - Русский.
Новости: Regional Reporters: Начались переговоры Дмитрия Медведева с Ангелой Меркель
This post will probably be in English soon. Now you can read it in Russian - Русский.
Public Initiative: Additional Information about Ukrainian Help Centre for Georgia
This post will probably be in English soon. Now you can read it in Ukrainian - Українська.