Friday 29th of March 2024

hope of the hapless .....

hope of the hapless .....

Mr. Biden has now supplied evidence for two plotlines - a deep rift within the administration, or a "sophisticated game," said Andrei V. Ryabov, a political analyst at Moscow's Carnegie Center. This ambiguity, he said, plays into the conviction of Mr. Putin and his team that real events take place far from view, among a handful of powerful individuals, and that public politics are "no more than puppetry, decoration in the theater."

"Nothing accidental can happen in this system," Mr. Ryabov said. "Everything has a hidden meaning." Even accidental words from officials are likely to be read closely; as a Russian proverb has it, "What a sober man has on his mind, a drunk puts on his tongue."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/02/weekinreview/02barry.html?ref=global-home

troops of gratitude for cash...

Georgia is dispatching nearly 1,000 troops to Afghanistan as a sign of gratitude towards the West, President Mikheil Saakashvili wrote in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece on Saturday.

Mr Saakashvili, who is keen for Georgia to join NATO, stressed that Tbilisi was "firmly allied to the values of the US and the trans-Atlantic community".

Georgia "has been grateful for the extent to which the US and Europe have stood alongside us over recent years. Now we are proud to stand - and fight - alongside you," he wrote.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) froze its ties with Russia after its conflict with Georgia in August 2008. Ties were restored about four months later.

The troop commitment - a heavy battalion and two light companies - makes Georgia the largest per capital contributor to the war effort, Mr Saakashvili wrote.

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