Russia Wants Control Of Key Georgia City Despite Pullout Claims Thousands of Georgians angry at the presence of Russian troops on the outskirts of the strategic Black Sea port of Poti took to the streets Saturday waving Georgian flags and urging the Russians to leave. The protest came as a top Russian general said his country's forces would keep patrolling Poti even though it lies outside the areas where Russia claims it has the right to station soldiers in Georgia.
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The conflict between Georgia and Russia presents a complex set of questions for the international community. While Western officials try to figure out how exactly Russia's two-headed government shares power, human rights workers are searching for the truth about atrocities that may or may not have been committed.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin undoubtedly holds the power in Russia, but diplomatic protocol
obliges European and American officials to negotiate with President Dmitri Medvedev, who appears much more accommodating than Putin. The good-cop-bad-cop routine makes it unclear if Russia will follow the cease fire agreement, signed by President Medvedev, leaving the rest of the world unsure of how to react to Russia.
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Meanwhile Russia and Georgia have
spread the confrontation and confusion to courts.
Energy Imperialism? Is the Georgian Conflict All About Oil? Could the Kremlin's latest bid for energy dominance boomerang and finally wake up the West? The prevailing wisdom says Russia's military incursion into Georgia was really all about "energy imperialism." The Kremlin doesn't like any challenges to its energy hegemony, which Georgia's part of the BTC pipeline clearly represents. And Russia's strong response, the thinking goes, basically ends any Western hopes of getting other Central Asian countries to stand up to Moscow with pipeline projects of their own.
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