Military intelligence believes that Georgia might again attack South Ossetia, the pro-Moscow region over which the two countries fought a war last year, a powerful spy chief said Thursday.

Alexander Shlyakhturov, who in April took over command of the military’s Main Intelligence Directorate, or GRU, said the situation was strained and accused NATO countries of continuing to supply arms to Georgia.

Russia may decide to use military forces abroad only in exceptional circumstances to protect its citizens, said President Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday.

Russia's State Duma, the lower house, in late October voted unanimously to pass a bill which the Kremlin said would lay the legal foundation for using troops abroad to prevent aggression by other states and to protect Russian citizens on foreign soil.

Iran has not rejected an offer to enrich its uranium in Russia, and is preparing an official response to the proposals of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said Russia’s Foreign Minister.

Polyus Gold (PLZL.MM) (PLZLq.L) plans to launch what will be Russia's largest gold mine, the $2.5 billion Natalka project, in 2012 or 2013, the company's chief executive said in a statement on Tuesday.

Polyus, which mines nearly a quarter of Russia's gold, expects the Natalka mine in the country's remote northeast to produce over 1.3 million ounces a year of the precious metal -- more than the company's entire forecast production for 2007.

Secretary of Russia's National Security Council Nikolai Patrushev says the country should be ready for "large-scale conflicts".

Patrushev made the comments while discussing a new version of Russia's military doctrine, which officials have been drafting in recent months.

Russia on Thursday said it would continue military cooperation with Iran amid widespread unease in the West over Moscow's controversial contract to sell advanced anti-aircraft missiles to Tehran.

Russia is highlighted as the country that bears the brunt of the ill-effects of the Afghan drug trade by a UN Office on Drugs and Crime report. The BBC's Stephen Eke reports on Moscow's growing concern about the problem.

Israel relayed a sharply worded protest to the Russian government following Russia's vote in favor of adopting the Goldstone report at the Human Rights Council in Geneva Friday, according to senior Foreign Ministry officials in Jerusalem.

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman suffered a personal blow by the Russian vote, which went against the promises he received from his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, days prior to the vote at the United Nations body.

Russian officials clarified that Moscow would oppose any discussion of the Goldstone report by the UN Security Council, Israel Radio reported on Sunday night.

President Dmitry Medvedev of Russia issued a letter in August demanding policy reversals from a new Ukrainian government, including an end to its bid to join NATO. He also introduced a bill authorizing the use of troops to protect Russian citizens and Russian speakers abroad, a measure that some interpreted as targeting Crimea.

Russia is weighing changes to its military doctrine that would allow for a “preventive” nuclear strike against its enemies — even those armed only with conventional weapons. The news comes just as American diplomats are trying to get Russia to cut down its nuclear stockpile, and put the squeeze on Iran’s suspect nuclear program.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wrapped up a European tour Wednesday by calling on Russia to uphold human rights...

People no longer trust Congress, the President, the courts, the media, corporations, political parties, and other institutions of society. People even doubt science and medicine.

According to the secretary if the Russian Security Council, the Russian government’s new review of its nuclear weapons policy retains and even expands the nation’s long-standing option to pre-emptively use nuclear weapons in warfare.

“Different variants are considered to allow the use of nuclear weapons depending on a certain situation and intentions of a would-be enemy,” the secretary insisted. Russia has insisted that it has the right to launch pre-emptive nuclear strikes since early 2008.

Russia pushed back Tuesday at U.S. efforts to threaten tough new sanctions if Iran fails to prove its nuclear program is peaceful, a setback to the Obama administration's desire to present a united front with Moscow.

So RT covered the mass protests in Georgia that preceded by a year the Russian invasion of 2008. "There were tens of thousands of people gathered around the parliament. They were roughly dispersed with tear gas, rubber bullets and sound machines." She says the story was at that stage ignored by other global broadcasters.

Last month, a group of east European leaders and intellectuals gathered in the Livadia Palace, where Britain, the US and the Soviet Union held the Yalta conference in February 1945. The idea was to discuss Ukraine's strategic future. But the discussion was overshadowed by one question: will there be a war between Russia and Ukraine?

On maps, Crimea is Ukrainian territory, and this naval citadel on its southern coast is a Ukrainian city. But when court bailiffs tried to serve papers at a lighthouse here in August, they suddenly found themselves surrounded by armed troops from Russia's Black Sea Fleet who delivered them to police as if they were trespassing teenagers.

Once again the simmering political cauldron in the disputed regions appear to be boiling up with Russia’s announcement this week that they are to escort freighters en route to Abkhazia, the Georgian breakaway state.

Russia may dispatch its navy ships to protect commercial vessels bound for a Russia-aligned separatist region in Georgia on the Black Sea, the Russian foreign minister said Friday.

Sergey Lavrov says the escort in neutral waters of the Black Sea might be needed to protect shipping from Georgian "provocations." He spoke Friday on a visit to Sukhumi, the capital of the separatist region of Abkhazia.

His statement about dispatching the navy ships to neutral waters marked a step beyond earlier Russian pledges to protect shipping in waters off Abkhazia's coast.

Competition for resources in the Arctic Circle could provoke conflict between Russia and Nato, a newly appointed commander at the alliance warned yesterday.

Russia has recently been aggressive in its pursuit of claims to parts of the region and in February sent a submarine to the floor of the sea symbolically to plant a Russian flag. Admiral James Stavridis said that military activity and trade routes would also be potential sources of competition around the polar cap.

Georgia's attack on its breakaway South Ossetia region marked the start of last year's war with Russia, which retaliated with excessive force, an EU-commissioned report said Wednesday.

The report on the five-day war in August 2008 lay blame on both sides, but cited Georgia as starting the conflict with its night shelling in South Ossetia — an act it said was not justifiable under international law.

?he United States and Russia are in a race for control over energy resources, and all the processes in the South Caucasus should be considered in this context, Andranik Tevanyan, Director of the Political Economy center, told NEWS.am, commenting on the information on Pentagon’s plans to deploy military bases in Georgia by 2015.

According to him, the United States is trying to resolve all the problems in the South Caucasus at one time thereby ensuring its hegemony over the region and making one more step toward greatly desired energy resources. Tevanyan stressed that the military bases will not be aimed against any country – they are just supposed to enable Washington “to draw nearer” to the energy resources of Central Asia and Azerbaijan.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has assured Iran that it will not be left out at any decisions to be made on the status of the Caspian Sea.

In a letter to his Iranian counterpart Manouchehr Mottaki, Lavrov reiterated that Iran will be part of any decision makings on the issues pertaining to the Caspian Sea, IRNA reported on Friday.

If US congressmen approve the plan and Georgian officials support it, by 2015 there will be 25,000 American military officers in Georgia. As for the military bases, the US will build two land bases and one navy base on the territory of Georgia. The same number of bases Russia is building in Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

There were no official comments either from Washington or from Tbilisi. Analysts believe that the issue with American bases in Georgia is connected with harsh comments from US State Secretary Hilary Clinton.

On September 21 (after the meeting with Mikhail Saakashvili) she said that the United States was not going to recognize independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Washington will do everything to prevent the world from recognizing these republics.

Medvedev stated shortly before the visit to the United States that Mr. Obama’s decision was obviously a positive sign. The Russian president added that Russia would listen to the USA once the USA listened to Russia. At the same time, Medvedev said that Russia would not be making primitive compromises. He emphasized that the missile defense system must be created though international, not individual effort.

Needless to say that the United States is not ready for it. Moreover, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said September 20 that Obama’s decision was not a concession that the USA had made to Russia.

What is Saakashvili up to? He seems intent on provoking a new crisis to force NATO to stand with him and bring the United States in on his side – against Russia. Ultimate goal: Return the issue of his lost provinces of Abkhazia and South Ossetia back onto the world’s front burner.

Prominent Europeans warned Tuesday against a new Berlin Wall going up in Georgia with the "de facto annexation" of two provinces by Russia, in a guest column printed in four newspapers.

The letter by signatories including former Czech president Vaclav Havel, European deputy Daniel Cohn-Bendit and French writers Andre Glucksmann and Bernard-Henri Levy said Europe's integrity was at stake in Georgia.

Georgia’s Foreign Ministry said the start of Russian coast guard patrols in the Black Sea off the separatist Georgian region of Abkhazia shows that Russia’s aim in a 2008 war was to boost its military presence in the area.

The Russian coast guard vessel Novorossiisk began patrolling off Abkhazia, Russian state television reported today, adding that the ship is one of as many of 10 that will be deployed in Abkhaz waters.

Washington is eager for Russia's entry into the World Trade Organization, and promised Monday to offer "constructive support" toward that end, US trade representative Ron Kirk said.

Kirk's comments came after he met with Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov in Washington for talks on a range of bilateral and multilateral trade issues.

The first Russian patrol boat has arrived in Abkhazia to protect the maritime borders of the former Georgian republic which has been recognized by Russia as an independent state, the Vesti television reported.

The Novorossiysk vessel is part of a Russian coastal guard division which will be based at the Abkhazian port of Ochamchira. The division is expected to have up to 10 Sobol class and Mangust class patrol boats.

The incident illustrates the brutality of an underground war that is being waged in the northern Caucasus region, encompassing Chechnya and its neighbouring republics of Ingushetia and Dagestan.

On one side are Muslim extremists who want to break away from Moscow’s rule and set up an Islamic state. On the other are the Kremlin-backed forces hell-bent on stopping them. Caught in the middle are countless civilians.

President Obama sent a secret letter to Russia’s president last month suggesting that he would back off deploying a new missile defense system in Eastern Europe if Moscow would help stop Iran from developing long-range weapons, American officials said Monday.

President Barack Obama’s decision to scrap a U.S. missile defense system in eastern Europe won praise from Russian leaders. What it didn’t win was a sign that they will cooperate to thwart Iran’s nuclear program.

Obama stressed that his reversal of President George W. Bush’s plan to place radar and missile interceptors in the Czech Republic and Poland reflects a new assessment of Iran’s missile capabilities, not a response to Russian opposition.

Georgia said on Tuesday it would resist any attempts by Russia to detain its ships in the waters of its former province of Abkhazia.

A Russian border protection service official said earlier in the day that Russian border guards would detain all vessels that violate Abkhazia's maritime border. Tbilisi considers Abkhazia and its waters part of Georgian territory, and has declared any unauthorized maritime shipments of goods illegal.

President Barack Obama has scrapped an expensive ($56 bn so far) and probably useless "missile shield" program in the Czech Republic and Poland to which Russia had vehemently objected, and which had increasingly been described as aimed not at Russia but at Iran.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev says he would like to meet with "dissidents" when he visits the U.S. next week.

Russian news agencies quote him as telling a group of visiting foreign experts that "I believe there are dissidents in the United States."

In the wake of weeks of naval blockades by neighboring Georgia, the Republic of Abkhazia announced today that it has signed a military defense pact with Russia, one which Russia says will be aimed at preventing Georgia from attempting to occupy the separatist enclave.

Following the pact, the Russian Coast Guard has warned that it will not allow the naval blockade to continue, and says it will detain any Georgian military ships which attempt to enter Abkhaz waters.

Russian Defense Minister, Anatoly Serdyukov, and his counterparts from breakaway Abkhazia and South Ossetia signed treaties on military cooperation in Moscow on September 15, the Russian news agencies reported.

Russian news agencies say the country's coast guard is warning that it will detain Georgian ships entering the territorial waters of Abkhazia.

The warning adds to already strong tensions between Georgia and Russia over the status of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, two separatist provinces that Russia recognized as independent after its war with Georgia last year.

Russian PM Vladimir Putin has warned against military action targeting Iran or imposing new sanctions to curb its nuclear programme.

Iran's latest proposals on its nuclear ambitions have brought diverging views from the US and Russia.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu drew the wrath of Israel's most influential newspapers on Thursday over what they described as lies issued by his office about a secret flight to Russia.

Netanyahu's first major media fiasco since taking office six months ago began with a simple question many Israelis, using their leader's nickname, asked on Monday: Where's Bibi?

Following Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s visit to the occupied Georgian province of Abkhazia in late August 2008, the Kremlin appears to be intensifying its military preparations in the South Caucasus.

On September 4, Georgian newspapers and TV channels reported that “the Russian occupation forces have been engaged for two months in constructing a one-kilometer-long tunnel deep in the Ochamchire district. Allegedly, the construction is highly secretive, only Russian military are employed and the local residents are not even allowed to approach the construction site. The Russians will use the tunnel to deploy military equipment and munitions.”

Rising tensions between Russia and Georgia over shipping rights to a breakaway Georgian region have opened a potential new theater for conflict between the countries, a little more than a year after they went to war.

A Kremlin bill expanding the legal reasons for using military force abroad won a quick preliminary approval in the lower house of parliament Wednesday.

The bill would allow the president to send troops outside the nation's border to fend off attacks on the Russian military, deter aggression against another state, protect Russian citizens, combat pirates and protect shipping.

The redeployment of U.S. Marines to Georgia, then, is indicative of a continuous effort by the Pentagon ranging over more than seven years to prepare the Georgian armed forces ­ an American and NATO proxy army ­ for wars abroad and in the South Caucasus alike.

The Pentagon and NATO have acquired seven new military bases in Bulgaria and Romania in recent years, including air bases for the transit of troops and weapons to Georgia and Afghanistan as well as for potential bombing runs against other nations such as Iran.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry today warned that Georgia’s continued blockade of their mutual neighbor Abkhazia could end with “a serious armed incident.” Georgia’s Navy has been chasing cargo ships away from the Abkhaz Republic, and has recently captured two ships including an fuel tanker from Turkey.

A Russian official has warned Georgia that attempts to block ships from reaching a Moscow-aligned separatist region of Georgia could end in military intervention.

A journalist has fled Russia after suggesting the Arctic Sea cargo ship that was apparently hijacked in July may have been carrying illegal weapons.

Mikhail Voitenko said he had been told to leave Moscow or face arrest.

Abkhazia on Wednesday threatened to destroy any any Georgian ship violating the de-facto sea borders of the Georgian rebel region, in a major escalation of a row with Tbilisi over shipping in the area.

Sergey Bagapsh, president of the Russian-backed statelet of Abkhazia, warned on Wednesday his tiny navy would "destroy" any Georgian vessels straying into Abkhaz territorial waters.

His dramatic threat followed Georgia's recent seizure of several cargo vessels on their way to and from Abkhazia. In an interview with Russian news agency Interfax, Mr Bagapsh described the seizures as "piracy," requiring what he called an "adequate response."

Experts estimate Abkhazia's navy numbers not more than half a dozen vessels.

In practice, they say, Russian vessels sailing under an Abkhaz flag would be likely to get involved in any standoffs.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said on Thursday Georgia's attempts to seize ships off the Abkhazian coast could lead to new armed conflicts.

"Aside from interrupting international maritime shipping, these actions of the Georgian leadership are an attempt to impose a blockade of the Abkhazian coast, which could lead to the deterioration of the situation in the region and new military conflicts," the Foreign Ministry's spokesman Andrei Nesterenko told a news conference in Moscow.

The conspiracy theory which names Israel as the mastermind behind the mysterious hijacking of a Russian freighter in July appears to be gaining traction, with the European Union's rapporteur on piracy, Admiral Tarmo Kouts, expressing his support for that version of events.

The leader of Georgia's breakaway region of Abkhazia, Sergei Bagapsh, on Wednesday ordered the destruction of Georgian ships entering the rebel region's claimed territorial waters, the Interfax news agency reported.

"I would like to emphasize that the matter involves exclusively the Abkhaz Navy. No Russian naval forces have been employed or will be employed to resolve this issue," he added.

Russian border guards will help protect ships bound for Georgia's rebel Abkhazia region, the republic's border guard chief Zurab Marganiya says.

President Dmitri A. Medvedev of Russia denounced Ukraine this month for “anti-Russian” policies, citing in particular its “incessant attempts” to harass Russia’s naval base in Sevastopol. Mr. Medvedev condemned Ukraine’s bid for NATO membership and its support for Georgia, and said he would not send an ambassador to Ukraine.

Beevor - who was educated at Sandhurst and served in the 11th Hussars (Prince Albert's Own), an elite cavalry regiment - says details of the Soviet soldiers' behaviour have forced him to revise his view of human nature.

A Russian newspaper claimed Friday that suspected pirates who boarded the freighter Arctic Sea were actually agents of the Israeli secret service trying to stop it smuggling arms to Iran. According to Russian media, the Arctic Sea may have been carrying illegal X-55 cruise missiles destined for Iran hidden among its cargo of lumber.

Men acting on the behalf of the Israeli Mossad secret service commandeered the ship to divert the weapons away from Israel's regional enemy, the daily Novaya Gazeta said.

According to sources, the Nezavisimaya Gazeta newspaper that the persons who are suspected pirates who boarded the cargo ship "Arctic Sea" In fact, members of the Israeli intelligence (Mossad) were trying to prevent the ship from the transfer of weapons to Iran.

The ship had disappeared more than three weeks of monitoring off the west coast of Africa and the Russian forces to free the crew of 15 sailors Russia on Monday, near the Cape Verde.

The media reported that Russia may have been the ship "Arctic Sea" cruise missile X-55 illegally hidden among a load of sawdust.

Abkhazia, predictably, was none to pleased with the capture of the ships: one a Turkish tanker delivering fuel and the other a Cambodian ship with a Syrian crew which was delivering scrap metal, and threatened a “proportionate response” against Georgia for the blockade.

GEORGIA said Thursday it had seized two cargo ships visiting its rebel Abkhazia region this week, as it steps up efforts to enforce a naval blockade of the Moscow-backed breakaway province.

It is said that art often must imitate life. In the case of Tom Clancy's "Red Storm Rising", the motives and actions of the fictionalized USSR line up rather nicely with those of the real life USA. And therein lies a warning for those who think fake terror is the ideal tool with which to rule. For in Clancy's book, following a costly and bloody war, the fictionalized USSR is no better off than when it started, still without oil, still without money, and with a military coup on top of it all.

Life imitates art?

I hope not.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev held talks Tuesday with Israeli President Shimon Peres on efforts to check Iran's nuclear program, stalled Mideast peace talks and other issues, the Kremlin said.

The informal meeting got under way at Medvedev's official residence in Sochi on Russia's Black Sea coast and was also to focus on plans long in the works for Moscow to host an international Mideast peace conference.

Abkhazia and South Ossetia are of course in the South Caucasus and not in Georgia except in the minds of those anxious to expel Russia from the Caucasus, North and South, and transparently have been included as they are targets of designs by U.S. empire builders to further encircle, weaken and ultimately dismantle the Russian Federation.

Russian political leadership has been reserved if not outright compliant over the past decade when the U.S. and NATO attacked Yugoslavia, invaded Afghanistan and set up military bases throughout Central and South Asia, invaded Iraq in 2003, assisted in deposing governments in Yugoslavia, Georgia, Adjaria, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan to Russia's disadvantage and brazenly boasted of plans to drive Russia out of the European energy market.

The United States is resuming a combat training mission in the former Soviet republic of Georgia to prepare its army for counterinsurgency operations in Afghanistan, despite the risks of angering Russia, senior Defense Department officials said Thursday.

All nations with navies send their ships cruising around the world in international waters. But now all of a sudden the media is making a big deal of two Akula subs in the Atlantic.

Trying to bring back the Cold War?