Kavkaz

WARSAW (Reuters) – Russia’s relations with Poland have rarely been easy but Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov visits Warsaw on Thursday amid particularly sharp disputes over missile defense and Moscow’s army offensive in Georgia.

Moscow says its soldiers are likely to stay in South Ossetia and Abkhazia for a long time, a day after agreeing to a deal to pull troops out of Georgia proper. 

TEHRAN (FNA)- The United States’ continued interference in the Caucuses and Central Asia has made Moscow plan or consolidate strategic alliance with regional countries to counter NATO and US presence in the region.

MEIENDORF CASTLE, Russia – (Reuters) – French President Nicolas Sarkozy arrived in Russia on Monday to seek a lasting peace deal for Georgia that will persuade Russia to pull its troops out of positions deep inside the ex-Soviet state.

MINSK (Reuters) – Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko stopped short of recognizing the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia on Monday, leaving Nicaragua the only state to join Russia in recognizing them.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy will demand Moscow complies with a month-old peace plan for Georgia or risk demaging relations with the EU when he meets his Russian counterpart for talks today.

Georgia will seek a ruling from the UN’s highest court in the Hague later today ordering Russia to stop what it is claimed are human rights violations against ethnic Georgians in the breakaway provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

CERNOBBIO, Italy (Reuters) – The European Union wants to work closely with the United States in resolving the Georgian crisis, Italy’s foreign minister said after meeting U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney on Sunday.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian President Dmitry Medvedev accused the West on Saturday of acting provocatively in and around the Black Sea, where the United States is using warships to deliver humanitarian aid to Georgia.

BERLIN (Reuters) – The conflict between Georgia and Russia requires a rethink of a planned pipeline which will pump Russian gas under the Baltic Sea to Germany, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk told a German newspaper on Saturday.