Kavkaz

US President George W Bush has repeated his call for Nato to expand eastwards. Speaking in Romania ahead of Nato’s summit in Bucharest, he said the former Soviet states of Ukraine and Georgia should be offered paths to membership.

Sergey Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, said on April 2 that the government would consider the Russian State Duma’s resolution on the recognition of independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia with the connection to the situation in Kosovo.

Former Chairman of the NATO Military Commitee Harald Kujat is against the admission of Ukraine and Georgia into NATO. According to German general, membership of Ukraine and Georgia in the alliance conflicts with the interests of NATO and the candidates themselves.

 NATO decided Thursday not to put Georgia and Ukraine on track to join the alliance after vehement Russian opposition, but the alliance pledged that the strategically important Black Sea nations will become members one day.

BUCHAREST (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to focus on areas of agreement rather than discord at talks with NATO leaders on Friday, in efforts to keep ties with the West on a relatively even keel before he steps down.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – A Russian Foreign Ministry official said on Thursday the entry of Ukraine and Georgia into NATO would be a “huge strategic mistake” after alliance leaders pledged to offer them membership one day.

BUCHAREST (Reuters) – President George W. Bush set the stage for a clash at his final NATO summit on Wednesday by pressing reluctant west European allies to set former Soviet republics Georgia and Ukraine on a path to membership.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia would respond pragmatically to any further NATO expansion by strengthening its defenses and economic might, Russian news agencies quoted Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying on Wednesday.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia will send humanitarian aid to Kosovo’s Serb-populated enclaves in early April, a Russian diplomat said on Monday, saying Moscow had not coordinated the move with the region’s ethnic Albanian leadership.

NIKOLSKOE, Russia (Reuters) – A Russian doomsday cult sheltering in a bunker say credit cards and food packaging bar codes are satanic, the official negotiating the release of children from the group said on Monday.