Authoritarian would-be emperors such as Putin and Jinping and the US’s military-industrial complex erode the open society and its values of individual freedoms
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/ 15 October 2008
The first high-level talks between Russia and Georgia since their war broke down on Wednesday.
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/ 13 October 2008
Two months after the Caucasus conflict broke out, some sober lessons are emerging for all sides.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev announced on Tuesday that Moscow had decided to recognise two rebel regions of Georgia as independent states.
Russia approved on Monday a resolution recognising the independence of two rebel regions of Georgia, a move likely to worsen relations with the West.
Georgia said on Sunday it would appeal to the international community this week to pressure Russia to end its ”occupation”.
A fuel train exploded on Sunday on Georgia’s main east-west rail line and police said it appeared to have hit a landmine.
Russian soldiers held positions inside Georgia on Saturday, drawing accusations that Moscow’s pull-back did not match up to what it had promised.
Russia promised to complete a pull back of troops from Georgia by the end of Friday but said a number of ”peacekeeping forces” would stay.
European leaders warned Russia on Sunday to withdraw its forces rapidly from Georgia or face unspecified consequences.
The risk of a new era of East-West confrontation triggered by Russia’s invasion of Georgia heightened on Friday.
Russia’s President Dmitri Medvedev promises to guarantee any vote by rebel Georgian states to break with Tbilisi.
Moscow has to take some of the blame. But it is the West’s policy of liberal interventionism that has fuelled war in Georgia.
The Kremlin on Tuesday night dictated humiliating peace terms to Georgia as the price for halting the Russian invasion of the small Black Sea country.
Georgia said on Tuesday that Russian attacks on the country continued as 100 000 people gathered at a rally in central Tbilisi.
The White House said on Tuesday it was looking into Russia’s assertion that it had halted its widely condemned military offensive in Georgia.
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili accused Moscow of trying to overthrow his government on Monday as troops pushed into two separatist regions.
Refugees continued to pour out of South Ossetia on Monday, risking snipers, aerial bombardment and tanks to reach safety across the border.
Russian troops took the capital of the separatist Georgian region of South Ossetia on Sunday after a three-day battle as Georgian forces retreated.
Georgia’s army of less than 25 000 men is confronting a Russian force which can count on more than one million troops.
Two war-torn towns deep in the Caucasus on Saturday presented mirror images of violence and retaliation.
Russia said on Saturday it was sending reinforcements into South Ossetia, a region of Georgia where Russian forces are supporting separatists.
Russia has sent forces into Georgia to repel a Georgian assault on the breakaway South Ossetia region, with reports of ”hundreds of dead civilians”.
Fighting raged in and around the capital of Georgia’s breakaway South Ossetia region on Friday as Georgian troops pounded separatist forces.
Georgian troops entered Tskhinvali, the besieged capital of the breakaway region of South Ossetia, on Friday after battling separatist forces.
Georgia and South Ossetian separatists reported a heavy battle involving artillery on Thursday in the breakaway region.
Russia said on Tuesday it would not be indifferent if violence escalated further in Georgia’s breakaway region of South Ossetia.