KavkazCenter :: World

American political scientist Zbigniew Brzezinski believes that one of the goals of the visit of US President Barack Obama in Moscow must be non-admission of repetitions of the events of August 2008 in Georgia.

In his article published in Financial Times Brzezinski noted that, a serious geopolitical conflict of interests between the US and the Russia Federation results from present aspiration of the Russian leadership to restore the former influence on the post-Soviet territories.

"Gaining control over Ukraine would restore in effect an imperial Russia, with the potential to ignite conflicts in Central Europe. Subduing Georgia would cut the west's vital energy connection (the Baku-Ceyhan pipeline) to the Caspian Sea and to Central Asia", Zbigniew Brzezinski believes.

According to him, in the summit meetings, Mr Putin and Mr Medvedev will be looking for signs that the new US administration disowns the charters on partnership with Ukraine and Georgia signed by former President George W. Bush. Even an unintentional signal to that effect would be seen as a green light for more muscular Russian actions against these two countries.

Meanwhile, Moscow hopes that NATO countries will learn a corresponding lesson from the Russian-Georgian war. It was declared in interview with "the Russian newspaper" by the deputy minister of foreign affairs of Russia Alexander Grushko.

On a question, whether a problem of expansion of the Alliance on the East was discussed at the Russia-NATO Council, Grushko has answered: "latest developments in Transcaucasia have once again shown: NATO expansion creates cracks".

"It is obvious that if there were no incentive gestures from Brussels which were felt by Saakashvili, he would never dare to a adventure - to defiantly and blatantly violate all the principles under which Georgia signed", Grushko noted.

As he said, it is a question of basic principles of OSCE, and about those obligations which were incurred by Georgia not only as a member of the United Nations and the Council of Europe, but also in the mutual relations with the NATO and the European Union.

"All documents, which defined base for cooperation between Georgia and NATO, and also between Georgia and the European Union, starts with very simple postulates that conflicts will be resolved by exclusively peaceful means.

It is a scandalous example of how the incentive policy which ignored realities and was based on the principle of "A Native - A Stranger", eventually led to such serious consequences for the European security. We hope that NATO countries will learn a lesson and would not in the future impetuously give support to so-called partners, being guided by exclusively ideological preferences", the deputy minister said.

[1] photo from article