Dimitri Medvedev Raises Spectre Of New Cold War

Dimitri Medvedev

From Times Online:

Russia put the West on alert for a new Cold War that the Kremlin is ready to fight, its President said yesterday.

President Medvedev set tensions soaring when he recognised the independence of two breakaway republics inside Georgia. “We are not afraid of anything, including the prospect of a Cold War,” he said. Hours earlier he had ordered his Foreign Ministry to start establishing diplomatic ties with the secessionist regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

The move brought instant condemnation from the United States, Britain, France, Germany and other Western countries. President Bush appealed to the Kremlin to “reconsider this irresponsible decision”. David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, said that it was “unjustifiable and unacceptable”.

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My Comment: There is going to be no "second" cold war. Russia is not the Soviet Union of the past. The cold war between the Soviet Union and the West was an ideological conflict .... this conflict is mainly economic and nationalistic. There will be a sour of diplomatic relations .... how extensive these relations will be pulled back will be determined in the next few months.