"Scheunemann attacked Russia’s policy toward Georgia while neglecting to disclose that he had been a paid lobbyist for Georgia until as late as December 2007."
The Atimes:
"The Caucasus Republic of Georgia, as nations go, is not apparently a major global player. Yet Washington has invested huge sums and organized to put its own despot, Mikhail Saakashvili, in the presidency in order to close a nuclear North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) iron ring around Russia.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited the capital Tbilisi and made sharp statements against Moscow for supporting the separatist Georgian states of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, in essence blaming Moscow for an imminent war Washington has incited in order to bring Georgia into NATO by the December NATO summit.
Western media have either tended to ignore the growing tensions in the strategic Caucasus region or to suggest, as Rice does that the entire conflict is being caused by Moscow's support of the 'breakaway' republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. In reality, a quite different chess game is being played in the region, one which has the potential to detonate a major escalation of tensions between Moscow and NATO."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/JG16Ag01.htmlNote that during her very successful sweep through the region last week, her getting the Czechs to sign on the dotted line for W.'s pie in the sky missile defense radar system drew the Russian's ire. The Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying "We will be forced to react not with diplomatic, but with military-technical methods."
Soon after Pravda announced:
"Russia cut the amount of exported crude to the Czech Republic twice last week, which made the country use its owns state crude reserves. Russia started the reduction of shipments immediately after the Czech authorities signed an agreement to deploy a US radar station in the country. Czech media assumed that the reduction of fuel shipments became Russia’s response to the decision."
http://newsfromrussia.com/world/europe/14-07-2008/105772-czech_usa_radar-0F William Engdahl write for the ATimes:
"It makes abundantly clear that Washington is aiming its military strategy at the dismantling of Russia as a potential adversary. That is a recipe for a possible nuclear war by miscalculation. Rice's latest Caucasus and Czech visit only added to that growing danger."
And just to piss off the US some more, after all the trouble we went through to resucite Killer Kahdfi'sinternational reputation:
"Russian companies beat the competition Wednesday in Tripoli when 23 firms — including three from the United States — announced their bids to drill for oil beneath Libya's desert sands and azure Mediterranean waters.
The U.S. firms — Occidental Petroleum Corp., Chevron Corp. and Exxon Mobil Corp. — were outbid in this third international tender for exploration and product-sharing agreements since the U.S. lifted its embargo on Libya in 2004, allowing American companies to do business in this North African country."
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/12/20/business/ME_FIN_Libya_Oil.phpKeep in mind also that the Russianas are royally ticked off about Kosovo, the nexus to several different competing oil and gass pipelines to Europe.
Search Camp Bonsteel for more info on that. It's one of our largest military bases in the world, on in a country we fought in almost 10 years ago. Do the math.