From our correspondent Enrico Piovesana     “If the Russians hadn’t arrived, we would all be dead by now”. Valentin throws the stub of his cigarette among the debris that covers the floor of his apartment, on the top floor of a large block on the outskirts of Tskhinval. Walls and ceilings are blackened by fire and gutted by Georgian cannon-shot. The flames have consumed everything, continue...

Reasons for annexation. Some might call the news sensational. At least that’s how some Russian geologists just back from a six-week Arctic expedition on an atomic icebreaker described it. And what they discovered is this: the Lomonosov ridge—which divides the frozen Arctic Sea into two basins, one Eurasian, the other North American—connects Russia to the North Pole. continue...

The Russian government will invest 189 billion dollars in eight years to build a new generation of intercontinental ballistic missiles, nuclear submarines and aircraft carriers. The news was revealed by the Secretary of State for Defence, Sergei Ivanov, few days after Washington announced decision to place part of its new antimissile system in Eastern Europe. American threat. The recent, continue...

Last Thursday, January 25, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili used some very tough language during his third anniversary address. The speech casts disturbing shadows over the future of his nation, which has become the front line of the “New Cold War” between the US and Russia. Georgia is becoming for Russia what Cuba has long been for the US, “the enemy in the back yard.” “A new Dodgori. continue...