Kavkaz

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed treaties with Georgia’s South Ossetia and Abkhazia on Wednesday that commit Moscow to defend the breakaway regions from any Georgian attack.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – A visit to Georgia by senior NATO officials this week was anti-Russian and showed the alliance is driven by Cold War-style thinking, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Tuesday that the Caucasus does not need NATO interference in the region in the wake of the recent conflict in Georgia.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran plans to offer a collective strategy to establish stability and security in the Caucasus, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian prosecutors said on Tuesday they are to check safety standards at national carrier Aeroflot after a plane operated by one of its subsidiaries crashed killing all 88 people on board.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mottaki says that Tehran aims to draw strategies to help establish stability and security in the Caucasus.

TBILISI (Reuters) – NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer condemned Russia’s military action against Georgia but shied away from making any commitment to the ex-Soviet state on when it will be invited to join the military alliance.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Any state which decides to impose sanctions on Russia over its military intervention in Georgia will suffer symmetric losses, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Monday.

High level NATO talks aimed at showing support for Georgia in its recent conflict with Russia are taking place in Tblisi. The NATO delegation, headed by Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, will meet with Georgia’s President Mikhael Saakashvili.

Russian soldiers are continuing their pull out from Georgia in line with an EU-brokered ceasefire. Under the terms of the agreement, Moscow has until today to withdraw, particularly from five checkpoints around the Black Sea port of Poti.