Bush warns Russia to pull back in Georgia

[FormerBondFan]

By MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press Writer 2 hours, 43 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - President Bush on Monday demanded that Russia end a "dramatic and brutal escalation" of violence in Georgia, agree to an immediate cease-fire and accept international mediation to end the crisis in the former Soviet republic.

Almost immediately after his return from the Olympics in China, Bush warned Russia in his strongest comments since the fighting erupted over Georgia's separatist South Ossetia region last week to "reverse the course it appears to be on" and abandon any attempt it may have to topple Georgia's pro-western government.

"Russia has invaded a sovereign neighboring state and threatens a democratic government elected by its people. Such an action is unacceptable in the 21st century," the president said in a televised statement from the White House, calling on Moscow to sign on to the outlines of a cease-fire as the Georgian government has done.

"The Russian government must reverse the course it appears to be on and accept this peace agreement as a first step toward solving this conflict," Bush said, adding that he is deeply concerned that Russia, which Georgian officials say has effectively split their country in two, might bomb the civilian airport in the capital of Tbilisi.

He said Russia's escalation of the conflict had "raised serious questions about its intentions in Georgia and the region" and had "substantially damaged Russia's standing in the world." "These actions jeopardize Russia's relations with the United States and Europe," Bush said. "It's time for Russia to be true to its word to act to end this crisis."

A senior U.S. official said the United States and its allies suspected Russia had been planning an invasion for some time and deliberately instigated the conflict through attacks on Georgian villages by pro-Russian forces in South Ossetia despite outwardly appealing for calm and promising to rein in the separatists.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal Bush administration deliberations, said there were numerous "unpleasant precedents" for the current situation, including the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslavkia.

Despite the tough talk in Washington, there was no specific threat of any consequences Russia might face if it ignores the warnings. American officials said they were working with U.S. allies in Europe and elsewhere, as well as with the Russians, to defuse the crisis.

Earlier Monday, the United States and the world's six other largest economic powers issued a call similar to Bush's for Russia to accept a truce and agree to mediation as conditions deteriorated and Russian troops continued their advances into Georgian territory.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her colleagues from the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations pledged their support for a negotiated solution to the conflict that has been raging since Friday, the State Department said.

"We want to see the Russians stand down," deputy spokesman Robert Wood told reporters. "What we're calling on is for Russia to stop its aggression."

Rice and the foreign ministers of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan spoke in a conference call, during which they noted that Georgia had agreed to a cease-fire and wanted to see Russia sign on immediately, he said, adding that the call was one of more than 90 that Rice has made on the matter since Friday.

They called on Russia to respect Georgia's borders and expressed deep concern for civilian casualties that have occurred and noted that Georgia had agreed to a cease-fire and said the ministers wanted to see Russia sign on immediately as urgent consultations at the United Nations and NATO were expected, according to Wood.

The seven ministers backed a nascent mediation efforts led by French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, whose country currently holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, and Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb, whose country now holds the chair of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, he said.

The Group of Seven, or G7, is often expanded into what is known as the G8, a grouping that includes Russia, but Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was notably not included in the call.

Wood said the United States was hopeful that the U.N. Security Council would pass a "strong" resolution on the fighting that called for an end to attacks on both sides as well as mediation, but prospects for such a statement were dim given that Russia wields veto power on the 15-member body.

A senior U.S. diplomat, Matthew Bryza, is now in Tbilisi and is working with Georgian and European officials there on ways to calm the situation.

Meanwhile, the State Department said it has evacuated more than 170 American citizens from Georgia. Wood said two convoys carrying the Americans, along with family members of U.S. diplomats based in Georgia, left Tbilisi on Sunday and Monday for neighboring Armenia.

The U.S. Embassy in Georgia has distributed an initial contribution of $250,000 in humanitarian relief to victims of the fighting and is providing emergency equipment to people in need, although those supplies would run out later Monday, the department said.

The Pentagon said it had finished flying some 2,000 Georgian troops back home from Iraq on C-17 aircraft at Georgia's request.

It said it had informed the Russians about the flights before they began in order to avoid any mishaps, but Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin harshly criticized the step, saying it would hamper efforts to resolve the situation by reinforcing Georgian assets in a "conflict zone."

Wood rejected the criticism, saying: "We're not assisting in any conflict."

Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman said the U.S. flew the Georgians out of Iraq as part of a prior agreement that transport would be provided in case of an emergency.

Pentagon officials said Monday that U.S. military was assessing the fighting every day to determine whether less than 100 U.S. trainers should be pulled out of the country.

There had been about 130 trainers, including a few dozen civilian contractors, but the civilians had been scheduled to rotate out of the country and did so over the weekend, Whitman said. The remaining uniformed trainers were moved over the weekend to what officials believe is a safer location, he said.

[Goldeneye]

euronews.net
Emerging from a crisis meeting with his national security team, US President George W Bush urged Moscow to accept an EU-crafted peace plan aimed at ending the conflict in the Caucasus.

Bush told reporters that Russia’s actions wounded its world standing and endangered ties with the West: “There’s evidence that Russian forces may soon begin bombing the civilian airport in the capital city. If these reports are accurate these Russian actions would represent a dramatic and brutal escalation of the conflict in Georgia. These actions would be inconsistent with assurances that we have received from Russia that their objectives were limited to restoring the status quo in South Ossetia that existed before fighting began on August 6. Russia has invaded a sovereign neighbour state and threatens a democratic government elected by the people. Such action is unacceptable in the 21st century.”

But Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said US support for Georgia revealed where Washington’s true priorities lay: “The Cold War has been over for a long time, but this Cold War mentality dominates the thinking of some American diplomats. It is a pity, but we continue building up relations with all partners, and, of course, our American partners.”

[Kristatos]

Did anyone else read the headline and straight away think of the "tell him to pull out immediately" line from TSWLM?

[carl stromberg]

Did anyone else read the headline and straight away think of the "tell him to pull out immediately" line from TSWLM?

I didn't!

Do you think the Georgian President would make a good Bond:



Here he is meeting Daniel Craig:

[James]

I bet Putin wears shoe lifts. It's funny, I don't remember ever hearing from the last Russian Prime Minister but now Putin has the job it suddenly seems to be a much more important position. How strange.

[Dr. Joseph]

Who's to say that Russia hasn't been behind the separatist movement from the start to give them the excuse they needed to invade this little country? I have seen reports on the news that the Russians have been preparing & training hard for some time for this "rescue" mission.

[FormerBondFan]

By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA and MATTI FRIEDMAN, Associated Press Writers 12 minutes ago

OUTSIDE GORI, Georgia - A Russian military convoy challenged a cease-fire agreement Wednesday and rolled through a strategically important city in the former Soviet republic of Georgia, which claimed fresh looting and bombing by the Russians and their allies.
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President Bush said a massive U.S. aid package was on the way for tens of thousands uprooted in the conflict and demanded Russia "keep its word and act to end this crisis."

"The United States stands with the democratically elected government of Georgia and insists that the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia be respected," Bush said sternly in Washington.

One day after the Kremlin and its smaller neighbor agreed to a French-brokered cease-fire to end the dispute over two pro-Russian breakaway territories, the pact appeared fragile at best.

The cease-fire calls for both sides to pull back to the positions they held before fighting broke out Aug. 8, but it also allows Russia to take "additional security measures until the establishment of international measures."

An Associated Press reporter saw dozens of Russian trucks and armored vehicles leaving the city of Gori, some 20 miles south of the separatist region of South Ossetia and home of a key highway that divides Georgia in two, and moving deeper into Georgia.

Soldiers waved at journalists and one jokingly shouted, "Come with us, beauty, we're going to Tbilisi." The convoy roared southeast, toward the Georgian capital, but then turned north and set up camp about an hour's drive away from it.

Georgian officials said the Russians had looted and bombed Gori before they left. Moscow denied the accusation, but it appeared to be on a technicality: A BBC reporter in Gori said Russian tanks were in the streets while their South Ossetian allies seized cars, looted homes and set houses on fire.

As confusion reigned on the first day of the cease-fire agreement, Bush called a Rose Garden speech to express concern about reports the Russians were already breaking it.

He said he was sending Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice first to France and then to Tbilisi to reinforce U.S. efforts to "rally the world in defense of a free Georgia."

For her part, Rice said: "This is not 1968 and the invasion of Czechoslovakia where Russia can threaten a neighbor, occupy a capital, overthrow a government and get away with it. Things have changed."

The president said a huge U.S. aid effort was under way, including American naval forces and C-17 military cargo planes, to get clothes, blankets, medicine and other supplies to refugees. The European Union agreed to consider deploying European peacekeeping monitors to the area.

Besides the hundreds killed since hostilities broke out last week, a United Nations agency estimates 100,000 Georgians may have been uprooted. A spokesman said the U.N. refugee agency was helping evacuate about 1,500 people fleeing the Kodori Gorge in the breakaway province of Abkhazia alone on Wednesday.

Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili conducted a blitz of interviews with news outlets at home and abroad and made a series of claims, some of which were disputed as inaccurate or exaggerated.

He said on national television that the U.S. arrival of a military cargo plane with humanitarian aid "means that Georgia's ports and airports will be taken under the control of the U.S. Defense Department."

Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell stressed the United States had no plans to take over Georgian airports or seaports to deliver the aid.

"It is simply not required for us to fulfill our humanitarian mission," he said. "We have no designs on taking control of any Georgian facility."

In a sharp response to Bush's speech, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called Georgia's leadership "a special project of the United States. And we understand that the United States is worried about its project."

Russian news agencies quoted him saying the United States would have to choose "support for a virtual project" and or "real partnership" on issues such as U.S.-Russian cooperation on Iran and other world tension spots.

Saakashvili criticized Western nations for failing to help Georgia, a U.S. ally that has been seeking NATO membership. "In a way," he said, "Russians are fighting a proxy war with the West through us."

The conflict centers on South Ossetia and another region claimed by Georgia that leans Russian, Abkhazia. When Georgia cracked down on South Ossetia on Aug. 7, Russia sent its tanks and troops into the two regions and deeper into Georgia proper.

Georgia, bordering the Black Sea between Turkey and Russia, was ruled by Moscow for most of the two centuries preceding the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union.

Abkhazia lies close to the heart of many Russians. Its coast was a favorite vacation spot in Soviet times and the province is just down the coast from Sochi, the Russian resort that will host the 2014 Olympics.

Russia has distributed passports to most in South Ossetia and Abkhazia and stationed peacekeepers there since the early 1990s. Georgia wants the peacekeepers out, but Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has insisted they stay.

Jeffrey Mankoff, an adjunct fellow for Russian studies at The Council on Foreign Relations, said it was too soon to tell the real intentions behind Russia's push into Georgia.

"On the one hand this could be a way to set up a buffer zone between the separatist regions, and on the other it also seems there is an aspect of disbanding the Georgian military aspects," Mankoff said.

In defiance, a few dozen Abkhazian fighters, some with assault rifles and one with a dagger, planted their red, white and green flag in Georgian territory across the Inguri River.

"This is Abkhazian land," one of them said. Another laughed that Georgians retreating from Abkhazia had received "American training in running away."

The peace plan apparently would allow Georgian forces to return to the positions they held in South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Nevertheless, Georgian Security Council chief Alexander Lomaia said 50 Russian tanks entered Gori on Wednesday morning. Some of the Russian units that later left to camp outside the city were camouflaged with foliage.

The convoy was mainly support vehicles, including ambulances, although there were a few heavy cannons. There were about 100 combat troops and another 100 medics, drivers and other support personnel.

About six miles away from the camp, about 80 well-equipped Georgian soldiers were forming what appeared to be a new front line, armed with pistols, shoulder-launched anti-tank rockets and Kalashnikovs.

Sporadic clashes continued in South Ossetia where Russians responded to Georgian snipers.

In the Black Sea port of Poti, and Georgian television showed boats ablaze in the harbor. Georgia's security chief also said Russian forces targeted three Georgian boats, while Lavrov said Russian troops were nowhere near the city.

For several days, Russian troops held the western town of Zugdidi near Abkhazia, controlling the region's main highway. An AP reporter saw a convoy of 13 Russian tanks and armored personnel carriers in Zugdidi's outskirts Wednesday. Later in the day, Georgian officials said the Russians pulled out of Zugdidi.

Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko issued a decree Wednesday saying that Russian navy ships deployed to the Georgian coast will need authorization to return to the navy base Russia leases from Ukraine.

The rights group Human Rights Watch said it has witnessed South Ossetian fighters looting ethnic Georgians' houses and has recorded multiple accounts of Georgian militias intimidating ethnic Ossetians. The report was important independent confirmation of the claims by each side in the Russia-Georgia conflict.

Meanwhile, at the Olympics in Beijing, Georgia and Russia clashed in competition for the first time. Georgia rallied to beat Russia in beach volleyball, two sets to one.

"Russia and Georgia are actually friends. People are friends," said the Georgian beach volleyball team leader, Levan Akhtulediani. "I say once again, its better to compete on the field rather than outside the field.

[James]

This must be a boost for McCain. He has a fairly tough stance on the Russkies doesn't he?

[Dr. No]

This must be a boost for McCain. He has a fairly tough stance on the Russkies doesn't he?

Sort of.
McCainn came out with the right response, right away. Makes him look on top of things. Guess those naps he takes really do help
Obama came out with a statement that this violates the Olympic spirit, really? no s**t. A few days later come out with a middle of the road statement. Which is a good cautious response but it makes it look like he had to havea focus group to get there instead of thinking on his feet.
I like Obama and thought I’d vote for him until recently, after he finally put hillary down securing the nomination he starts taking advice from the dnc gurus who lost the last 2 elections
I hope he comes out of the convention as his own man again tell all those people trying to handel him to back off he’ll win or lose it his own way. I think the american people like who he is but get confused we he starts going all ove rth emap (thanks to his handlers), during the primary he wouldd jump right in with a answer.
Also I heard that russia propaganda has it that Georgia did this to ruin Obama’s cahnces for president

[Dr. No]

Did anyone else read the headline and straight away think of the "tell him to pull out immediately" line from TSWLM?

I missed that too. But the whole situation is reminding me of TWINE
with the piple line and all

[FormerBondFan]

By TERENCE HUNT, AP White House Correspondent 35 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - President Bush on Friday accused Russia of "bullying and intimidation" in its harsh military treatment of Georgia, saying the people in the former Soviet republic have chosen freedom and "we will not cast them aside."

Bush ratcheted up his rhetoric against Moscow as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was in Tbilisi, Georgia to pursue a diplomatic solution to the week-old crisis. Standing alongside Rice, pro-Western President Mikhail Saakashvili said he had signed a cease-fire agreement with Russia that protects Georgia's interests despite concessions to Moscow.

Rice said all Russian troops "must leave immediately" and said she had been told that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will sign an identical pact.

The rush of events came as Bush began a two-week holiday from Washington. He left the White House after his remarks and flew to his ranch in Texas. Rice is to arrive there early Saturday to brief the president about the showdown between Moscow and Tbilisi over two separatist provinces in Georgia.

"Georgia's sovereignty and territorial integrity must be respected," said Bush, speaking just outside the Oval Office.

With just five months remaining in his administration, Bush faces one of his biggest foreign policy challenges in dealing with a suddenly assertive Russia, along with unfinished wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the deeply troubled search for peace in the Middle East. Bush's influence is waning as the world turns its attention to the race to determine who will succeed him.

Bush said that Russia, with its air, sea and land attacks in Georgia, had damaged its relations with the United States and other Western powers.

"Bullying and intimidation are not acceptable ways to conduct foreign policy in the 21st century," the president said. "Only Russia can decide whether it will now put itself back on the path of responsible nations or continue to pursue a policy that promises only confrontation and isolation.

"To begin repairing relations with the United States, Europe and other nations and to begin restoring its place in the world, Russia must respect the freedom of its neighbors," Bush said.

The White House has hedged on what consequences Russia might face. The administration is considering expelling Russia from international groups such as the Group of Eight industrialized nations. Questions also have been raised about U.S. cooperation with Russia in space.

"We need to see where this all ends up," White House deputy press secretary Gordon Johndroe said on Air Force One, flying to Texas with Bush. "We are hopeful that we can continue cooperation with the Russians — and that's across the board. But a lot of this depends on Russia, and what Russia's actions are in the near future. Right now their actions have been inconsistent ... with the fundamental principles of a Europe whole, free and at peace. So cooperation on a wide range of issues going forward depends on the actions that Russia takes."

Even before the crisis in Georgia, tensions between Washington and Moscow have been rising over disputes such as the independence of Kosovo, NATO's expansion toward Russia's borders and U.S. plans for a missile defense system in Eastern Europe. Moscow was infuriated when the United States and Poland reached a deal Thursday to install a U.S. missile defense base on Polish territory.

Still, Bush said, "The Cold War is over. The days of satellite states and spheres of influence are behind us."

The United States has rushed humanitarian aid to Georgia, using U.S. military planes that put American forces in the midst of the showdown with Moscow.

"Moscow must honor its commitment to withdraw its invading forces from all Georgian territory," Bush said.

The president said Americans might be perplexed why the United States had drawn a line in the sand in defense of Georgia, an impoverished country that is largely unknown on the world stage.

"In the years since its gained independence after the Soviet Union's collapse, Georgia's become a courageous democracy," Bush said. "It's people are making the tough choices that are required of free societies. Since the Rose Revolution in 2003, the Georgian people have held free elections, opened up their economy, and built the foundations of a successful democracy."

Aligning itself firmly with Washington, Georgia sent troops to Afghanistan and Iraq. Bush visited Georgia in a show of solidarity and promised that the United States would stand with the former Soviet republic.

"The people of Georgia have cast their lot with the free world, and we will not cast them aside," the president pledged on Friday.

Bush on Friday called President Toomas Hendrik Ilves of Estonia to talk about the situation in Georgia.'

[carl stromberg]

The Russians are still mincing around, confiscating the small Georgian army's equipment and blowing up a few bridges. Once they bugger off I suppose the British government and all will have to replace their equipment and send in some aid. The Russians ahould pay for it!!!

[Dr. No]

Russia essentially threatened to nuke Poland.

I keep remembering bush about Putin " I looked in his eyes and saw his soul".
What an idiot! If we got to believe him I guess Putin didn't keep his plans for domination in his soul.

[FormerBondFan]

by Jean-Louis Santini Sun Aug 24, 3:02 PM ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The chill left on US-Russian relations by Moscow's military incursion into Georgia could spell problems for future US access to the International Space Station, US experts said.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration will become dependent on flights to the ISS by Russia's Soyuz spacecraft when it retires the shuttle fleet that has long ferried US astronauts into space in 2010.

NASA will only get its successor space vehicle, Orion, planned for a revival of trips to the moon, ready for flight in 2015 at the earliest.

That leaves the needs of US astronauts visiting the ISS vulnerable to the possibility of a new Cold War between Washington and Moscow after Russia's powerful military overran much of Georgia two weeks ago in the dispute over South Ossetia.

"If recent Russian actions are any indicator, a technical excuse to completely block US access to the ISS for geopolitical reasons would fit nicely into the Kremlin toolkit," Vincent Sabathier, an expert on human space exploration at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, told AFP.

Sabathier noted that not only was the short Georgia war a serious thorn in relations, but also the US determination to set up in Poland and the Czech Republic its missile defense system, which Russia calls a threat to its military.

"Almost immediately after the Czech Republic signed an agreement with the US to place missile defense tracking radar in its territory, oil supplies through the Druzhba pipeline to the central European country were reduced to a trickle... ostensibly for technical reasons," Sabathier said.

The end of the three-decade-old shuttle program leaves NASA with at least a five-year hole on which it will have to pay Russia's space agency to deliver and retrieve US astronauts and cargo to the ISS.

That depends as well on the US Congress voting an exemption to a 2000 law that bans US government agencies from opening contracts with countries like Russia that are considered aiding Iran and North Korea, which the US has labelled supporters of terrorism.

Even before the Georgia fighting erupted on August 8 there was opposition in the Congress to such an exemption, and now that has likely increased, according to Florida Democratic Senator Bill Nelson.

"In an election year, it was going to be very difficult to get that waiver to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to an increasingly aggressive Russia," Nelson said.

"Now, I'd say it's almost impossible."

Nelson, who supports allowing NASA to contract the Soyuz, said that without the exemption the US could find itself in 2011 with no access to the 100-billion-dollar space station -- largely paid for by the United States.

Because the ISS needs someone aboard all the time to keep it going, the situation, Nelson said, would mean leaving the station to "degrade and burn up on rentry, or with us ceding it to those who can get there."

NASA's chief Michael Griffin told AFP just days before the Georgia conflict erupted that it was a "great concern" that something could happen to make Soyuz unavailable.

"If anything at all in that five years period goes wrong with the Russian Soyuz, then we have no system to access the space station."

But after the Russia invasion of Georgia, NASA downplayed the political risk, saying it has a long history of cooperation with the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos).

[James]

I think the Russkies could end up as Bond villains again soon.

[FormerBondFan]

I think the Russkies could end up as Bond villains again soon.

I have this feeling as well.

[Dr. No]

I think the Russkies could end up as Bond villains again soon.

If bond were uptodate they might. right now its stuck somewhere in 2003 waiting for a bus and looks like they'll be stuck there til DC quits.
The story arc to they want to stay with and the one they say is realistic I find nothing realistic about their world concerns. I'm not sticking it to Craig. this time I find their pseudo terrorist bankers and whispers of 9/11 as convincing as people found Giuliani's bid for president.
DADs use of the Koreans was very timely as it turned out.
IMHO the Russians were used well in GE and TWINE

The situation over there is going bad fast, Russia did somthign that the international comunity should have stopped. I know somepeople complain that our armed forces are spread too far out, I agree up to a point. I don't think we would have done a thing no matter what our situation militarily. we don't want a war with russia and were not prepared to risk the possibility to do what was right.

[Kristatos]

I think the Russkies could end up as Bond villains again soon.

If bond were uptodate they might right now its stuck somewhere in 2003 waiting for a bus Look like they'll be stuck there til DC quits. The story arc to they want to stay with and they say they want to be realistic I find nothing realistic about their worlds concerns. I'm not sticking it to Craig. this time I find their pseudo terrorist bankers and whispers of 9/11 as convincing as people found Giuliani's bid for president.

Well, the Bond films have never been very realistic. Even in films like FRWL, the Cold War was treated as a bit of a game, rahter than a deep ideological struggle. Pitting Bond against real-world villians would be as tacky as Frank Miller's forthcoming Batman v. Osama Bin Laden graphic novel.

[Dr. No]

I think the Russkies could end up as Bond villains again soon.

If bond were uptodate they might right now its stuck somewhere in 2003 waiting for a bus Look like they'll be stuck there til DC quits. The story arc to they want to stay with and they say they want to be realistic I find nothing realistic about their worlds concerns. I'm not sticking it to Craig. this time I find their pseudo terrorist bankers and whispers of 9/11 as convincing as people found Giuliani's bid for president.

Well, the Bond films have never been very realistic. Even in films like FRWL, the Cold War was treated as a bit of a game, rahter than a deep ideological struggle. Pitting Bond against real-world villians would be as tacky as Frank Miller's forthcoming Batman v. Osama Bin Laden graphic novel.

Are you saying that what I find unrealistic about their realistic is a good thing?

I agree about real world villains, we didn't need bond on mission to help the CIA get Castro. PLO or IRA.
I don't see their realistic approach as having merit becasue of this, even if i find their terrorists bankers unbelievable as a threat dosn't remove them to the fantasy realm the other bond movies live in.
I see what they did as kind of a cheat, they say we can't make bond movies any more becasue of 9/11 the world is a mean place, then they offer up some of the lamest terrorists in the world mixing it up with a stock scandal. It was meant to give craig's spy an edge instead it blunted it further to my mind.
24 isn't realistic to me, but it doesn't flinch for providing real villains that relate to our current world. this is what they wanted to do for Bond and failed at big time. Their goal was to provide terrorists who do it for money and as we all now know terrorist don't care for money, their motivations are idealistic and their goals follow that idealogical foundation. Mercenaries do it for money. The difference is like the bad guy twists at the end of die hards 1&3

We used to get changes in the Bond villains from film to film that would in some way reflect new concerns starting to rise. Didn't need a direct conflict with them only acknowledge they exist. Currently they are stuck with the cards dealt in CR.

I think the cold war games aspect is something Fleming brought. might be he he saw it and it is how I've heard it described by the people from the front lines. They couldn't see all that was being done or know what their puropse truly was, so iguess seeing at as a game makes it easier.

Batman v. Osama Bin Laden ??? HUmmmmm. how about AzBat v. Osama instead

[FormerBondFan]

Bad Russians were the villains in the 1980s Bond films.