Rice calls Russia's declaration 'regrettable'

Source: AP

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Tuesday blasted Russia's recognition of breakaway Georgian territories as "regrettable."

At a joint news conference with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Rice said that Russia's formal recognition of the territories at the heart of its war with Georgia "puts Russia in opposition to the Security Council resolution to which it is a party."

"I think it is regrettable," Rice said, adding, "Since the United States is a permanent member of the Security Council, this simply will be dead on arrival in the Security Council."

President Bush had appealed to Russia's president to ignore the advice of lawmakers and refrain from recognizing Georgia's breakaway regions as independent.



Read more: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5g14_OgVc3KvfIE0q7FpUa4Ou69QQD92PVPU00

How stupid can she BE? OF COURSE it will be DOA in UNSC.

Obviously, the point of the matter is to get it on record, AGAIN. It's the THIRD time Russia has done this. Justification is EVERYTHING.

If she had a brain in her head, she would endorse the request formal recognition of the regions and send in the NED, as was the case with Georgia, Ukraine and Azerbaijan. Abkhazia and South Ossetia have BEEN essentially independent since 1992, anyway. Where's the LOSS? Can she not see that if they are INDEPENDENT states and recognized as such by the UN, then OBVIOUSLY NEITHER of them is part of Mother Russia and both are thus inviolate in their OWN sovereignty? Then, send in the NED $$$ and democratic initiatives, push for free and independent, democratic elections in the UNGA and let the friggin' world TURN, ferchrissakes.

The USA has lost enough face, internationally, over this tragic farce, already. They seem determined to take the tension up a notch, however. Let's see what happens when one of the US supply ships currently in the Black Sea gets within the 24 mile Russian Contiguous Zone. Search and Seizure, anyone?

Shit.

MOSABRUNI, Georgia, Aug 26 (Reuters) - Russian forces pushed Georgian police out of a disputed village on the de facto South Ossetian border on Tuesday, after a tense stand-off that underlined the fragility of their peace.

The Russian advance followed several days of posturing by heavily-armed Georgian special police and South Ossetian separatists at positions a few hundred metres (yards) apart near the village of Mosabruni.

The area is mainly populated by Georgians. Russian troops pulled out of the village last week after pouring over Russia's southern border this month to repel an offensive by Georgian forces to retake South Ossetia from pro-Moscow separatists.

~snip~

The move coincided with an announcement by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev that Moscow had decided to recognise South Ossetia and Georgia's other rebel region, Abkhazia, as independent states.

The stand-off in Mosabruni is indicative of the potential for renewed conflict in a region where Georgian and Ossetian villages sit side-by-side, and militias control the roads.

more:http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LQ329242.htm