Kavkaz

HAVANA (Reuters) – Cuba and Russia have stirred memories of their Cold War alliance with recent talk of restoring “traditional” ties in what experts said was a warning to their old adversary, the United States.

SEVASTOPOL, Ukraine (Reuters) – Russian flags hung from balconies, many cheered the army sent to fight Georgian troops and the town planned a hero’s welcome for the ships of the Russian Black Sea Fleet.

Russia has announced its promised troop pullout from Georgia is complete. But Moscow’s definition of a withdrawal falls far short of what its critics are demanding. Russia says it will keep a permanent military presence in a large buffer zone bordering Georgia’s breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Tbilisi …

The Georgian government says it is looking for between one and two billion euros to rebuild after its 10-day border war with Russia. It has cost Tbilisi dear. It has seen Gori wrecked, the military port at Poti destroyed, and airbases and railway lines put out of action.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – A senior Russian military official confirmed on Friday that Russia’s Defense Ministry had frozen some cooperation with the NATO military alliance and queried the merits of a U.S. Navy operation in the Black Sea.

TBILISI (Reuters) – Russia’s military campaign in Georgia has bolstered Georgians’ determination to join NATO, Eduard Shevardnadze, the man who helped end the Cold War and reconcile Moscow with the West, said on Thursday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A World Bank team will travel to Georgia on Friday to assess economic damage caused by the conflict with Russia and to discuss reconstruction plans, a senior bank official said on Thursday.

SEVASTOPOL, Ukraine (Reuters) – The first Russian navy ship returned to base in the Black Sea on Friday from operations against Georgia. A Reuters correspondent said about 100 Ukrainian protesters, brought by bus by a local party from a nearby town, marched through the Crimean port of Sevastopol as the …

Russia says it will maintain military checkpoints within Georgian territory for good, despite a promise to complete a partial troop withdrawal by the end of the day.A senior Russian official said they will build a permanent infrastructure in a ‘buffer zone’ close to the disputed breakaway region of South Ossetia.

Jailed former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky has had his appeal for parole turned down by a court in Siberia.Once Russia’s richest man, he was sentenced in 2005 to eight years in prison for tax evasion and fraud. He maintains his innocence.