http://www.isn.ethz.ch/pubs/ph/detai...10622&id=54679MOSCOW MOVES TO DE FACTO ANNEXATION OF GEORGIAN BREAKAWAY REGIONS
By Svante E. Cornell and David J. Smith (04/16/2008 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Moscow’s promised response to the Kosovo settlement in the Caucasus appears to be materializing. For several weeks, Russian leaders from President Vladimir Putin down have taken new bold steps that encroach even further and more directly on Georgia’s territorial integrity than is already the case. On April 16, Russia’s outgoing president Vladimir Putin signed a decree moving toward the de facto annexation of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, removing the tiny fig leaf still present regarding Moscow’s ambitions of direct control over Georgia’s breakaway regions. These moves could to trigger a spiral of instability in the wider region, unless a forceful western response is found.
http://www.core-hamburg.de/documents...04/K%F6nig.pdfMarietta König
The Georgian-South Ossetian Conflict
http://www.cacianalyst.org/?q=node/4816TBILISI WITHDRAWS FROM THE JOINT CONTROL COMMISSION; PROPOSES NEW FORMAT FOR SOUTH OSSETIA
By Niklas Nilsson (03/19/2008 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Russia has in the aftermath of Kosovo's declaration of independence further reinforced its support for South Ossetia, as well as Abkhazia, stressing the importance of Kosovo as a precedent for other ethnic conflicts. On March 6, Russia withdrew from the 1996 CIS treaty imposing economic sanctions on Abkhazia and has subsequently held discussions in the State Duma on the prospects for recognizing the independence of the two regions. Russia's envoy to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, has also sought to connect these decisions to the outcomes of the Bucharest NATO summit in April, where a verdict will likely be cast on Georgia's prospects for obtaining a Membership Action Plan within NATO. Several NATO members oppose a MAP for Georgia due to the implications Georgia's unresolved conflicts and its troubled relations with Russia may have for the alliance.
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