What began on August 7 as a reckless act of aggression by Georgia to bludgeon South Ossetia into submission, quickly escalated to Russian military intervention in Georgia, and the conflict's transformation into a proxy war between the U.S. and Moscow.

Georgia and Russia have agreed to an EU-sponsored peace plan to end five days of fierce fighting in Georgia that has killed at least several hundred people and left thousands homeless.

Talks between Russia and Europe are so stymied by mutual suspicion that only a "big deal" can break the deadlock, says Timofei Bordachev. Cooperation over energy is a great opportunity to set bilateral relations on a whole new course.

The 10-year Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) between the Russian Federation and the European Union, which served to deepen and broaden relations between the parties, expired on November 30, 2007.

PAVEL USOV

The main question, which has arisen before the Belarusian political elite, is with whom they should build relationships, with the East or with the West. The current political situation indicates that Belarus has reached a geopolitical impasse.

DAVID BERDZENISHVILI

Russia’s decision to recognize the independence of Georgia's breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia has been made not only by the Russian President and the Russian political establishment, but also, regrettably, by the majority of the Russian citizens. Few people in Russia criticized their authorities.

ROVSHAN IBRAHIMOV

When holding the military operation in South Ossetia the Georgian government tried to solve the problem of territorial integrity. If the military operation in South Ossetia had been successful, Saakashvili would have again recieved wide support from the Georgian population and his country could have been integrated into the Western community. 

GEORGETA POURCHOT

The current Russian military operation in Georgia marks the beginning of the end for Georgian sovereignty. The peace deal brokered by France contains the seeds of further chipping away at Georgian territory.

ALEKSANDR RAHR

Yesterday I could say that in Europe there were differences in relation to Russia’s actions in South Ossetia. Some countries blamed Georgia for the conflict, others blamed Russia. But at present there is a different tendency.

ANDREY MAKARYCHEV

South Ossetia and Georgia have been at war with each other since last week. The towns and cities came under fire, the reservists were mobilized. There are the killed and the wounded, and a lot of refugees.

ZAAL ANJAPARIDZE

The guns are bellowing now in South Ossetia and Georgia, and muses of those who might mull over the solution of the grave crisis, are still silent. Many things including the people’s lives depend on how long the diplomats and policy-makers will be inactive.

KONSTANTIN KOSACHEV

Speaking about the prospects of the negotiations on a new agreement, I would like to be wrong, but I think they will take a substantial amount of time. Now Russia has to negotiate with 27 EU members, not 12 as in 1994.

ANDREY KOKOSHIN, FIRST DEPUTY CHAIRMAN OF THE STATE DUMA COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND HIGH TECHNOLOGIES; FYODOR LUKYANOV, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF OF "RUSSIA IN GLOBAL AFFAIRS" MAGAZINE

"The change consists in the fact that Russia can no longer influence the domestic policy of its neighbors. When that became clear Russia chose the pragmatic approach," Fyodor Lukyanov.

Since 1991, Ukraine has sat on the fence like a country coquette with her back to her jealous ex-husband Russia, from which the country’s ‘elite’ have nevertheless continued to get rich on cheap gas, while batting her eyes at the glamorous West, which offers lots of nice gifts but never a firm proposal of marriage.

The typical criticism of the UK’s Foreign Office is the one eloquently expressed in John Le Carre’s The Constant Gardener - that they are pitiless practitioners of real-politik who care more about stability than idealism, and who only really work to protect the interests of British corporations, rather than British values. But on Russia, the Foreign Office seems to have erred on the other side.

By sending troops into Georgia earlier this month, the Kremlin has shown its willingness to use force to check the advance of the West into what it considers Russia's zone of influence. The pretext for the invasion, Georgia's military clampdown on its separatist region of South Ossetia, is irrelevant.

Georgia has resolutely condemned Russia’s actions in Chechnya. Russia has severely criticized NATO actions towards Serbia. Later on the Georgian authorities tried to do the same thing in South Ossetia as the Russian authorities had done in Chechnya. Moscow decided to treat Georgia in the same way as NATO had treated Serbia.

The Russian foreign policy boringly runs around in circles: the row with Estonia on the historic past, the squabbles between Moscow and Kyiv over the Crimea and Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, the confrontation with Georgia because of its breakaway republics etc. After having made a full circle we are back to square one - another conflict with Georgia.