"Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman was dismissive of Russia's objections"
Another candidate for the broken promise and disappointment line.
"Russia demands halt to NATO military drills in Georgia; Asserts efforts to improve ties endangered" by Conor Humphries, Reuters | April 17, 2009
MOSCOW - Russia demanded yesterday that NATO call off planned military exercises in Georgia, saying they could undermine its efforts to rebuild ties with the Western alliance.
Formerly Soviet Georgia has become a focus of tension between the West and Russia, which sees it as part of its sphere of influence. NATO's offer of eventual membership for Georgia has angered Moscow, which sent troops into Georgia last August.
"This is absurd and a provocation," Russia's envoy to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, told Reuters by telephone. "I have asked the NATO secretary general . . . to postpone these exercises or to cancel them."
NATO says the exercises, from May 6 to June 1, will involve 1,300 troops from 19 countries. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the exercises would not help efforts to restore stability in the restive Caucasus region, Interfax news agency reported.
Really, why do this now? Why do it at all unless the purpose is to thumb the eye?
Moscow says NATO's eastward expansion is a threat to its security, and that the military support given by NATO members to President Mikheil Saakashvili of Georgia encouraged him to start last year's war. Georgia's attempt to retake the pro-Moscow breakaway South Ossetia region prompted Russia to send in tanks, which pushed to within 30 miles of the capital, Tbilisi.
The MSMcan't even call it a Georgian invasion -- the first blow of which killed 15 Russian peacekeepers -- and we are to take their word on so many things?
Georgia's minister for reintegration, Temur Iakobashvili, maintained that the NATO exercises will go ahead "as planned." Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman was dismissive of Russia's objections. "I don't think Russia's ever been particularly fond of NATO exercises," he said yesterday.
Yeah, and we are never too fond of anyone muckying around in our hemisphere, so shive it, Pentagon puke!
NATO has made clear that membership for Georgia and another former Soviet republic, Ukraine, is a long way off given concerns among some European countries, including France and Germany, about the effect on relations with Moscow....
Translation: France and Germany don't want their gas supplies shut off.
Rogozin also said the war games could be exploited by Saakashvili in his standoff with the opposition, which has held a series of major protests in recent days. "To hold exercises on Georgian territory could be used by Saakashvili against the opposition, or by the opposition against Saakashvili," Rogozin said. "In either case, the holding of military exercises is inappropriate."
NATO says the exercises, to be held 12 miles east of Tbilisi, are benign, and will be based on a fictitious UN-mandated, NATO-led crisis response operation. "There should really be no element of surprise for anyone," said NATO spokesman Robert Pszczel....
Better not be.
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