Russia Calls U.S.-Led Military Exercises In Georgia Provocation

Source: Xinhau News Agency
Russia calls U.S.-Georgia drills “provocation”

MOSCOW: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has described joint U.S.-Georgia drills which started Wednesday as “provocation”.

“The drills are supposed to be for the suppression of riots. I told the (U.S.) Secretary of State that this looks like provocation,” Lavrov told a meeting in the Russian State Duma, the lower house of parliament.

Moscow hoped those holding the exercises would bear in mind the fragile stability in Trans-Caucasian region, Lavrov said.

Meanwhile, he denied Moscow had urged anyone to recognize the independence of Georgia’s breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, saying Russia had only actively supported the regions in expanding their international contacts.

“We do not hold these talks. This is a business of our allies, Abkhazia and South Ossetia,” Lavrov said, adding Russia would support its friends politically.

Moscow recognized the two regions’ independence in August 2008 following a brief armed conflict with Georgia. In response, Georgia severed its diplomatic relations with Russia.

Source: Civil Georgia

Lavrov: U.S.-Georgian Military Drills ‘Provocative’

 

Russia’s Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, said that ongoing joint U.S.-Georgian military exercises “seems somewhat provocative” and that he had raised this “serious issue” when he met with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton earlier this week in New York.

Obama Prepares Georgia for Iran war: Analyst

Source: PressTV

A researcher says in his recent meeting with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, Barack Obama discussed the use of the Eurasian country’s soil for a strike on Iran.

“On January 30 US President Barack Obama met with his Georgian counterpart Mikheil Saakashvili in the Oval Office at the White House for an unprecedented private meeting between the heads of state, a tête-à-tête initiated by Washington,” Rick Rozoff wrote on Stop NATO website on Friday.

Rozoff, who has been involved in anti-war and anti-interventionist work in various capacities for 40 years, added that though the details of the meeting were not divulged, there has been speculation that Obama summoned the “ambitious and erratic” Georgian leader to Washington to propose “a quid pro quo.”

The deal, the journalist said, involved the “use of Georgian territory for American attacks on Iran in exchange for the US exercising its not inconsiderable influence in Georgia - with a population of only 4.7 million the third largest recipient of American foreign aid - to assist in securing Saakashvili’s reelection in the next year’s presidential poll.”

After his meeting with Obama, Saakashvili also reportedly met US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, leading members of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Central Intelligence Agency Director David Petraeus, and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta at the Pentagon.

Last week Georgian Defense Minister Bacho Akhalaia announced the imminent arrival of a delegation of American military experts, asserting US-Georgia military relations were entering “an entirely new phase.”

Furthermore, a member of Georgian opposition disclosed in January that the United States is financing the construction of facilities in Georgia to prepare the grounds for “a military conflict with Iran.”