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Russia
Conflict with Georgia and the Demise of the Western
Friendship
In
August 2008, fighting broke out between Georgia and its
two breakaway regions, South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
Russia sent hundreds of troops to support the enclaves,
and also launched airstrikes and occupied the Georgian
city of Gori. Observers speculated that Russia's
aggressive tactics marked an attempt to gain control of
Georgia's oil and gas export routes.
At
the end of August, after a cease-fire agreement between
Russia and Georgia was signed, Medvedev severed
diplomatic ties with Georgia, officially recognized
South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent regions, and
pledged military assistance from Russia. The move
heightened tensions between Russia and the West.
Both
Russia and Georgia have painted each other as the
aggressor responsible for the war—Georgia said it
launched an attack in South Ossetia because a Russian
invasion was under way, and Russia claimed it sent
troops to the breakaway region to protect civilians from
Georgia's offensive attack. In November 2008, Erosi
Kitsmarishvili, a former Georgian diplomat to Moscow,
testified that the Georgian government was responsible
for starting the conflict with Russia. Kitsmarishvili
stated that Georgian officials told him in April that
they planned to start a war in the breakaway regions and
were supported by the U.S. government.
A
dispute over debts and pricing of gas supplies between
Russia and Ukraine led Gazprom, the major Russian gas
supplier, to halt its gas exports to Europe via Ukraine
for two weeks in January 2009, affecting at least ten EU
countries. About 80% of Russian gas exports to Europe
are pumped through Ukraine. Russia and Ukraine blamed
each other for the disruption to Europe's energy supply.
String of Suicide Bombs Sparks Fear of a Crackdown by
Putin
On
March 24, 2010, the United States and Russia reported a
breakthrough in arms-control negotiations. Both
countries agreed to lower the limit on deployed
strategic warheads and launchers by 25% and 50%,
respectively, and also to implement a new inspection
regime. President Obama and President Medvedev signed
the treaty that outlines this agreement on April 8 in
Prague. The U.S. Senate ratified the treaty, called New
Start, in December.
Two
female suicide bombers, acting just minutes apart,
detonated bombs in two Moscow subways stations, killing
at least 39 people in March 2010. It was the first
terrorist attack in the capital city since 2004, when
Moscow experienced a string of deadly violence. Doku
Umarov, a former Chechen separatist and the
self-proclaimed emir of the north Caucasus, claimed
responsibility for masterminding the attack. Two days
later, two explosions killed 12 people in the north
Caucasus region of Dagestan. The attacks prompted
concern that Prime Minister Putin would crack down on
civil liberties and democracy as he did in 2004,
following the siege of a school in Beslan.
In
June 2010, the FBI announced it had infiltrated a
Russian spy ring that had agents operating undercover in
several cities in the United States. Ten people were
arrested and charged with espionage. By most accounts,
their attempts to collect policy information were
largely ineffective and clumsy, and any material they
managed to gather was readily available on the Internet.
Days later, the U.S. and Russia completed a prisoner
exchange, with 12 suspected spies deported to Russia and
four men accused of spying on the West were sent to the
United States.
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