RA’s Daily Russian News Blast – August 7, 2009
TODAY: Georgia and Russia, one year on, guns quiet but war of words blazing: who started it? Opposition says democracy far off; humanitarian issues remain; strike on Twitter linked to conflict. Chavez military deal; Russia to calm Uzbekistan; launch radar. Bloggers detained.
‘Differing narratives of the war persist’: the New York Times looks back. ‘There’s even disagreement on what day marks the beginning of the five-day conflict’. A 40-page report released by the Georgian government and a Russian Foreign Ministry statement highlight the different spins. The Guardian outlines the arguments on both sides. Georgia’s Reintegration Ministry has defended the actions of President Mikheil Saakashvili in relation to the war, whilst the Georgian opposition brand the ministry’s report ‘ridiculous‘. Opposition candidate Levan Gachechiladze has written a piece in the Independent suggesting that Georgia is further from democratic advances than it was before 2003. A Washington Post commentator says it is necessary that the US help Georgia ‘fulfill the promise of the Rose Revolution’.
‘Differing narratives of the war persist’: the New York Times looks back. ‘There’s even disagreement on what day marks the beginning of the five-day conflict’. A 40-page report released by the Georgian government and a Russian Foreign Ministry statement highlight the different spins. The Guardian outlines the arguments on both sides. Georgia’s Reintegration Ministry has defended the actions of President Mikheil Saakashvili in relation to the war, whilst the Georgian opposition brand the ministry’s report ‘ridiculous‘. Opposition candidate Levan Gachechiladze has written a piece in the Independent suggesting that Georgia is further from democratic advances than it was before 2003. A Washington Post commentator says it is necessary that the US help Georgia ‘fulfill the promise of the Rose Revolution’.