Bush Withdraws Nuclear Deal With Russia To Punish Moscow For Invading Georgia
Russian President Dmitri Medvedev promised to withdraw Russian forces from much of the independent nation of Georgia, but Russian troops will continue to occupy the South Ossetia and Abkhazia provinces in Georgia, the International Herald Tribune reported.
Medvedev promised French President Nicolas Sarkozy that Russia would allow 200 European monitors to deploy in “security zones” outside the two provinces.
But Russia still insists that the two provinces are sovereign independent states, continuing to deny that they are part of Georgia.
Meanwhile, in Washington, President Bush punished the rogue Russian invasion of Georgia by withdrawing from Congress a planned commercial nuclear pact with Russia. Jettisoning the pact could cost Russia billions of dollars in earnings.
The U.S. State Department said the pact was taken back from Congress with regret.
However, withdrawal of the deal from Capitol Hill isn’t the same as canceling it outright, meaning that Bush or the next president could revive the deal at some later point, if Russia ends its rampage.
The meeting between Medvedev and Sarkozy was held in Moscow. Sarkozy, who was accompanied to the meeting by other key European officials, has led the move by appalled Western governments to persuade Russia to abandon its bellicose stance, and to withdraw from all of Georgia.
That diplomatic session came as Ukraine is poised for talks on becoming part of the European Union, a move that Russia opposes.
As well, Russia has assailed in blistering language and open threats the U.S. move to build a European Missile Defense system involving a radar in the Czech Republic and interceptors in Poland.
Russia alleges the interceptors could bring down Russian intercontinental ballistic missiles, a claim the United States dismisses as patently false. The interceptors are too slow to hit Russian ICBMs, and the Russian missiles would be headed away from Poland, U.S. military leaders have noted.
But Russia is unswayed, threatening to use military force to destroy any European missile defense system if it is built in what Russia regards as its back yard, portions of the former Soviet Union.
The United States, for its part, notes the European defense shield would guard against missiles fired from a newly dangerous Iran. (Please see separate story in this issue.)