U.S., Europe Ponder Russia's Punishment

Joint NATO-Russia Navy Exercise Cancelled; President Bush Boycotts Meeting

(CBS/AP)  Scrambling to find ways to punish Russia for its invasion of pro-Western Georgia, the United States and its allies are considering expelling Moscow from an exclusive club of wealthy nations and have scrapped plans for an upcoming joint NATO-Russia military exercise, Bush administration officials said Tuesday.

But with scant leverage in the face of an emboldened Moscow, Washington and its friends have been forced to face the uncomfortable reality that their options are limited to mainly symbolic measures, such as boycotting Russian-hosted meetings and events, that may have little or no long-term impact on Russia's behavior, the officials said.

"The U.S. is a country that needs to stand by a loyal ally," Charles Kupchan of the Council on Foreign Relations told CBS News. "On the other hand, it cannot risk military engagement because the stakes would be too high of a confrontation with Russia."

With the situation on the ground still unclear after Russian President Dmitri Medvedev on Tuesday ordered a halt to military action in Georgia, U.S. officials were focused primarily on confirming a cease-fire and attending to Georgia's urgent humanitarian needs following five days of fierce fighting, including Russian attacks on civilian targets.

"It is very important now that all parties cease fire," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said. "The Georgians have agreed to a cease-fire, the Russians need to stop their military operations as they have apparently said that they will, but those military operations really do now need to stop because calm needs to be restored."

At the same time, however, President George W. Bush and his top aides were engaged in frantic consultations with European and other nations over how best to demonstrate their fierce condemnations of the Russian operation that began in Georgia's separatist region of South Ossetia, expanded to another disputed area, Abkhazia, and ended up on purely Georgian soil.

"The idea is to show the Russians that it is no longer business as usual," said one senior official familiar with the consultations among world leaders that were going on primarily by phone and in person at NATO headquarters in Brussels, where alliance diplomats met together and then with representatives of Georgia.

A senior U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity to describe confidential conversations among the leaders of other nations, said European and other leaders have been blunt with Russia that it must withdraw its forces. Russian leaders have said they do not plan a long-term occupation, the official said. The official was not specific about whether Russia has offered a timeline for withdrawal.

"People are saying, 'You know you cannot stay,"' the official said. "We have been hearing from Russia, 'We don't want to stay."'

For now, the Bush administration decided to boycott a third meeting at NATO on Tuesday at which the alliance's governing board, the North Atlantic Council, was preparing for a meeting with a Russian delegation that has been called at Moscow's request, officials said.

In addition, a senior defense official said the U.S. has decided to dump a major NATO naval exercise with Russia that was scheduled to begin Friday.

Sailors and vessels from Britain, France, Russia, and the U.S. were to take part in the annual Russia-NATO exercise aimed at improving cooperation in maritime security. But the official said there is no way that the U.S. could proceed with it in the midst of the Georgian crisis.

The naval exercise began a decade ago and typically involves around 1,000 personnel from the four countries, officials said. The Pentagon also is looking at a variety of ways it could respond to humanitarian needs in Georgia, but officials have not yet made any final decisions.

In the medium term, the United States and its partners in the Group of Seven, or G-7, the club of the world's leading industrialized nations that also includes Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan, are debating whether to effectively disband what is known as the G-8, which incorporates Russia, by throwing Moscow out, the officials said.

Discussions are also taking place on whether to revoke or review the May 2007 invitation to Russia to join the 30-member, Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which consists primarily of established European democracies, the officials said.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because no decisions have yet been made and consultations with other countries involved are still under way.

Bush spoke on Monday and Tuesday with fellow G-7 leaders as well as the heads of democratically elected pro-Western governments in formerly Eastern bloc nations, some of which are among NATO's newest members and have urged a strong response to Russia's invasion of a like-minded country.

On Monday on his way home from the Olympics in China, Bush talked with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus and Polish President Lech Kaczynski. He then called Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, the White House said. On Tuesday, he spoke with Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Rice, who returned early to Washington late Monday from vacation to deal with the crisis, held a second round of talks with foreign ministers from the Group of Seven countries in which they were briefed on European Union mediation efforts led by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who met Tuesday with Medvedev in Moscow.

"They believe that they have made some progress and we welcome that and we certainly welcome the EU mediation," Rice told reporters at the White House.

Later, Saakashvili told reporters that he accepted the cease-fire plan negotiated by Sarkozy.

Despite the flurry of activity, there was still uncertainty about whether Russia had in fact halted its military action in Georgia, with reports of continued shelling of civilian and military sites.

The State Department on Tuesday recommended that all U.S. citizens leave Georgia in a new travel warning, saying the security situation remained uncertain. It said it was organizing a third evacuation convoy to take Americans who want to leave by road to neighboring Armenia. More that 170 American citizens have already left Georgia in two earlier convoys.

Just hours after Bush said in a White House address that the invasion had "substantially damaged Russia's standing in the world" and demanded an end to what he called Moscow's "dramatic and brutal escalation" of violence, Medvedev said he had ordered an end to military action.

Russia said its military assault was ending because its mission has been accomplished, reports CBS News correspondent Richard Roth. But Medvedev said the Kremlin's army isn't pulling out, accusing the Georgian leader of starting the war, even calling him a lunatic.

[toldyouso12]

Here''s how the west can punish Russia--don''t buy any of their oil--that will show them... of course...it will show us to--but what the heck!! LMAO

[toldyouso12]

All you geeks knocking the U.S.A.,have never had to defend her have you?Never been shot,or had to take out a few bad guys,only in your dreams.Want to be Rambo''''''''s.Probably couldn''''''''t defend your girl friend if needed.Go live in a communist controlled area see how much fun life is .Panzie A.s.ses.

Posted by swwils at 07:47 AM : Aug 15, 2008



Come back and talk to us about your loyalty and bravery, and patriotism--when you do it for free and not for a paycheck. Even a who..re or crackhead will pick up a gun and try to shoot it--if the price is right.

[toldyouso12]

All you geeks knocking the U.S.A.,have never had to defend her have you?Never been shot,or had to take out a few bad guys,only in your dreams.Want to be Rambo''''s.Probably couldn''''t defend your girl friend if needed.Go live in a communist controlled area see how much fun life is .Panzie A.s.ses.

Posted by swwils at 07:47 AM : Aug 15, 2008


It''s coming. That tipping point where we stop revering or even supporting the troops and start seeing a lot of you as loose cannons with not much brains--tools really who merely come back here still in anger or killer mode and hurt your wives and others--at that point, the cheers stop--the jeers begin. We don''t need superchin heroes, we need people who think and who respect themselves and this country enough to not be the tools of any fool just because we elected him POTUS--right is right and wrong is wrong--and if you are a good guy who follows a wrong fool--you can''t cancel out the stupid stuff he makes you do, or the stupidity that makes you follow it without thinking or vetting the information. I refuse to let my children join the military---I don''t want them to be either pawns or fodder for lying old greedy men--and I also tell them not to get involved with military men--never know when they might lose it--and go off the haditha deep end.

[toldyouso12]

Bush''s Boycott means Putin does not get to see Bush dribble food down his suit while he is trying to talk, or dig his thumbnail between his teeth tryin'' to get out that bit o meat stuck in thar...yep--Putin must be really sad about missing such a sight while he is eating.

[samsel3]

The Russian invasion of South Ossetia is only for control of the BTC pipelines which sends oil & gas to Ceyran, Turkey. Shareholders in the BTC pipeline are: British Petroleum, AzBTC, Chevron, Statoil, TPAO, ENI, Total, Itochu, INPEX, ConocoPhillips & Amerada Hess.
The Russians are the second largest supplier of gas & oil on the planet.
This pipeline was constructed to circumvent Russian pipelines supplying Europe giving the US Brits et al the lions share of the market.
Taking out Iraq also took a major source of oil away from Russia.
The Russians are now evening the score.

[swwils]

All you geeks knocking the U.S.A.,have never had to defend her have you?Never been shot,or had to take out a few bad guys,only in your dreams.Want to be Rambo''s.Probably couldn''t defend your girl friend if needed.Go live in a communist controlled area see how much fun life is .Panzie A.s.ses.

[swwils]

Hey babooph If you don''t like it here go live in Gerorgia you freakin commie.Your probably some spoiled wet behind the ears brat.If it wasn''t for America this whole world would be under communist rule,you wouldn''t even have the right to the internet.I am a patriot,I have fought for this country and love it here.If you don''t split!Pack your s.h.i.t.,and leave you won''t be missed.

[babooph]

Your propaganda system ,told to tie "Europe" to Britain & the US-is a joke, much of Europe,particularly its citizens hate the idiot & respect the Russians.

[toldyouso12]

What are you talking about! Russia was not attacked, not Georgian solider or tank moved onto Russian soil. South Ossetia is a semi-autonomous province in GEORGIA. The majority of the people living there are ethnically of Iranian/Persian decent. Russia gave them passports in part of the Russian govts efforts to woo them to Moscow, but, the fact remains, South Ossetia is legally part of Georgia. Russia was not in anyway, shape or form attacked.

Posted by ourtomorrows at 10:37 PM : Aug 12, 2008


Two things:

1. Maybe Russia is invading Georgia to bring them Democracy and want flower laden liberators like we got in Iraq

2. Maybe Russia got a hot tip that Georgia had WMD and they are invading to protect themselves

Either way, the US has absolutely no room to talk or criticize anyone and at least Russia can claim a closer connection to Georgia (as in association and history and proximity) than we can ever claim for our little invasion across the world to Iraq.

[toldyouso12]

We can always invade them like Bush Sr did Iraq in operation Desert Storm and show them what''s what. We can always hope that the best thing they have in their arsenal are scud missles. Under McCain, since we plan on invading Iran too--we might as well go for broke and prove we are not bullies by taking on a country that could actually give us an azz whupping back.