August 7
OSSETIAN SEPARATISTS ARE PROVOKING A MAJOR RUSSIAN INTERVENTION – Eurasia Daily Monitor
“The strategic political goal is to dissuade NATO from approving a membership action plan (MAP) for Georgia at the alliance’s December 2008 or April 2009 meetings. More immediately, Moscow seeks to derail the North Atlantic Council’s assessment visit to Georgia, scheduled for September, or at least to influence the visit’s assessment about Georgia’s eligibility for a MAP. Since NATO’s “Russia-Firsters” insist that unresolved conflicts disqualify Georgia from a MAP, Russia seeks to demonstrate that those conflicts are indeed unresolved. NATO’s failure to approve a Georgian MAP at the April 2008 summit emboldened Russia to escalate military operations against Georgia.”
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Putin, Aug 9
“I think that it has become absolutely clear in Georgia, in Russia and in the entire world that the aspirations of the Georgian leadership to join the NATO is dictated not by the willingness to become a part of the global system of international security and make its contribution to strengthening of international peace, but this aspiration is dictated by other reason – by an attempt to involve other countries and other peoples in its bloody adventures”
