August 27, 2008 (LPAC)--"Battleships do not normally deliver aid, and this is gunboat diplomacy -- it does not make the situation more stable," said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday, amidst reports that the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Dallas was scheduled to dock at the Georgian port of Poti on Wednesday. However, this morning the U.S. Embassy in Tblisi announced that the Dallas would not be going to Poti today, and instead it will dock at Batumi, to the south.
On Sunday, the U.S. sent the missile destroyer USS McFaul to Batumi, allegedly to deliver 34 tons of humanitarian aid. Russia's deputy chief of staff, Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsin, said today that the Russians are concerned about the way humanitarian aid is being delivered on warships. "This aid could be bought at any flea market," he said.
"The heightened activity of NATO ships in the Black Sea perplexes us," Nogovitsyn added, telling reporters that 10 ships from NATO nations were currently in the Black Sea and that eight more are to join them soon. "The fact that there are Western warships in the Black Sea cannot but be a cause for concern." National Public Radio in the U.S. reported this morning from Tblisi that there was opposition within the U.S. military to docking the ship at Poti, since Russian troops are still stationed on the outskirts of Poti.
BACKGROUND:
Bretton Woods: Russia's Role in a Recovery
Jeff Steinberg and John Hoefle's weekly political overview
Soros's Human Rights Watch Has To Admit: Soros's Georgia Used Cluster Bombs Against South Osseti
Germany's Spiegel Magazine Exposes Saakashvili and CheneyNew
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Gen. Ivashov Warns of New 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis
LaRouche to Putin: Georgia Provocation Was British-Run, Through Cheney
Russian Gen. Ivashov Says Georgia Attack Was a Dry Run for Iran
LaRouche Responds to Latest Analysis by Russian General Ivashov
Georg(ia) Soros' Government In a Dangerous Dither
