Recently President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev, who is thought to be Gazprom’s key lobbyist, announced the Kremlin’s decision to join the OPEC cartel and become a vital component of that organization.

The August events have given a boost to major shifts in the alignment of forces and priorities in NATO territory, although these consequences will not become manifest in full at once.

I fear that in the U.S., too few understand the political and psychological problems of the Russians after the collapse of the USSR, the phantom pains of millions, and the problems of a massive country whose capital is nearly as close to Washington as to Vladivostok.

The brief August war between Georgia and Russia served to highlight the destabilizing potential of unresolved conflicts in the Caucasus and thus lent a new urgency to ongoing efforts to find a solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

When European Union leaders convene in Brussels for a summit meeting on October 15-16, they will have little option but to conclude to bury the hatchet with Russia over Georgia.

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.

What Europe does want to do is to support democratic reforms in former Soviet states like Georgia and Ukraine, and push for change in autocracies like Belarus.

SVYATOSLAV POLKHOV

Minsk has recently supported the EU’s new foreign-policy program “Eastern Partnership” and has already confirmed its readiness to formalize the program jointly with the European Commission, said Andrey Popov, spokesman for the Belarusian Foreign Ministry.

SVYATOSLAV POLKHOV

Russia’s attempt to make the parties sign the “Kozak memorandum” again was strongly opposed by the West. Asif Chaudhry, the U.S. ambassador to Moldova, stated on 24 November that it made no sense to return to that document.

MARIA YULIKOVA

Two months of blaming rhetoric between Russia and the US leaders, prompted by the August Caucasus crisis, nearly annihilated all the diplomatic achievements in the relationships between the two countries of the current millennium, and caused frustration among the diplomats on both sides.

VLADIMIR YASTREBCHAK

The goal of Transnistrian leader Igor Smirnov’s visit to Moscow was to continue the work with the Russian authorities that we had been carrying out for the whole period of the development of Transnistria and our relations with Russia.

DMITRY TRENIN, ALEXEI ARBATOV

According to Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev, the armed conflict between Georgia and Russia has changed the world. This may be an exaggeration, but in fact the war has changed the Russian foreign policy, it deeply influences Russia’s economy and Moscow's relations with the West and the New Independent States.

ALEKSANDR RAHR

The USA, where the presidential election campaign goes full swing, tries to take the toughest possible line with Russia. In many respects that is why some American government officials seek to support Georgian leader Mikheil Saakashvili.

VIKTOR KREMENIUK

The Caucasian conflict indicates intense rivalry between the USA and Russia for the post-Soviet space. Russia still hopes to put an end to the expansion of the U.S. influence.

VLADIMIR CHIZHOV

The outcome of the extraordinary EU summit held on September 1 in Brussels was more or less predictable, both in terms of the views expressed by the EU member states and in terms of the EU Presidency conclusion.

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.

SVYATOSLAV POLKHOV

On July 1, 2008 in Batumi (Georgia) a summit of the Organization for Democracy and Economic Development – GUAM took place. Despite the pompous proclamations of some GUAM leaders, the attempt to come to an agreement on major questions failed.

SVYATOSLAV POLKHOV

On April 11, the unrecognized Transnistrian Moldovan Republic’s city of Bendery hosted a meeting of Moldova’s President Vladimir Voronin and Transnistria’s leader Igor Smirnov.

MICHAEL AVERKO

The Serb-proposed settlement for Kosovo serves as a reasonable  option. If implemented in the former Moldavian SSR instance, it would let Pridnestrovie manage its own affairs, while remaining formally linked to Moldova; in a way that involves some interaction between the two. 

OAZU NANTOI

Vladimir Voronin did not take part in the GUAM summit in Baku because he did not wish to annoy the Kremlin on the threshold of his visit to Moscow.

It looks like there will be no war between Russia and Ukraine. It is clear that this fact will upset many in Moscow and Kyiv, but, unfortunately, there is a need to face realities. The efforts made by militarism heralds, admirers of Ukrainian hetman Ivan Mazepa and defenders of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet proved to be futile.

Russia’s victory over Georgia in the armed conflict in South Ossetia, the diplomatic maneuvers which followed the conflict and showed that the Western community cannot (and does not want to) oppose Russia in a serious way, and Dmitry Medvedev’s bold statements at the Valdai International Discussion Club make the President of Russia ‘a hero of the day’.

It seems that after the conflict with Georgia all we need is to clash with Ukraine. A lot of politicians both in Russia and Ukraine would definitely like it to happen. Caucasian crisis resulted in a new quarrel over Sevastopol, this time provoked by the Ukrainian side.

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.

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.