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INTERNATIONAL EDITIONS: HIGHLIGHTS AND EXCLUSIVES, SEPTEMBER 1, 2008 ISSUE

COVER: The World After Georgia (All overseas editions). Moscow Bureau Chief Owen Matthews reports that in the aftermath of the war in Ossetia, Russia achieved its goal of gaining respect. Ever since he came to power in 2000, Vladimir Putin, now prime minister, has dreamed of reversing the decline in Russia’s actual power over its own backyard. But while he talked a big game, harking back to the rhetoric of Soviet and tsarist Russian imperialism, Russia’s power shrank dramatically. Matthews reports that the war in Ossetia is all about drawing a line under further NATO expansion—and sending a strong signal to Georgia, Ukraine and Europe that Russia won’t be pushed around. The invasion marked the end of Russia’s browbeaten, humiliated post-cold-war era and the beginning of a new, more assertive, more imperial Russia. Matthews examines what Russia’s next move might be and the impact on the region.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/154964

            ‘The Cold War is Long Over.’ Sergey Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, writes in a guest essay that is has “become fashionable to view Russia’s involvement in south Ossetia through the prism of the cold war, with the 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia as the blueprint. But such interpretations are historical folly.” “Let us be clear: Russia’s involvement in South Ossetia is not about ideology. Nor is it about regime change in Georgia. Least of all is it about re-establishing the boundaries of the U.S.S.R. It is about restoring a fragile peace,” he writes.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/154942

            To Be Free From America. Dmitri Trenin, a senior associate of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and author of “Getting Russia Right,” writes in a guest essay that Russia is now on the rise and “while its move into South Ossetia was triggered by the reckless and brutal actions of Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, its real target was Washington and the growing American presence along Russia’s borders. The United States’ plans to bring Georgia and Ukraine into NATO and to build a missile defense system in Central Europe have pushed Russia to go beyond ineffective protests and take action.”

http://www.newsweek.com/id/154934

You Can Call Me ‘Misha.’ Moscow Reporter Anna Nemtsova looks at the charismatic  Saakashvili. During a press tour last year to the resort town of Batumi, he told the journalists to call him “Misha.”  But for all of Misha’s openness and seeming sophistication, his actions betrayed a naiveté about Georgia and its relationship with the world. Yes, Georgia boomed economically, but U.S. backing was far from unconditional.          

http://www.newsweek.com/id/154935

            You’ve Got Malice. Special Correspondent Travis Wentworth reports that weeks before Russia stunned Georgia with a rapid invasion, the cyber attack was already under way. Russian viruses had seized hundreds of thousands of computers around the world, directing them to barrage Georgian Web sites, including the pages of the president, the parliament, the foreign ministry, news agencies and banks, which shut down their servers at the first sign of attack to pre-empt identity theft. This was not the first Russian cyber assault—that came against Estonia, in April of 2007—but it was the first time an Internet attack paralleled one on land.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/154965

            Not a Safe Route. Senior Writer Adam B. Kushner reports that Russia’s invasion of Georgia threatened a major transit corridor for oil and gas from the Caspian Sea, raising questions about Western energy security. At the height of the fighting, more than 50 Russian missiles targeted the most important oil pipeline, called the BTC. Other missiles placed within 100 meters of one of the BTC’s pressurized vents could have caused a major explosion. The BTC is the culmination of a Western campaign to free Europe from energy dependence on Russia; now the war has Europe wondering whether Georgia is the route to independence.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/154938

Forced Off the Fence. Special Correspondent Mary Hennock reports on how the Russia/Georgia conflict has threatened China’s neutrality and could push it to take sides in a new cold war. President Hu Jintao met with both Russia’s Vladimir Putin and America’s George W. Bush as the Olympics began without saying a word about the bloodshed, and the Foreign Ministry stuck to anodyne clichés, expressing “grave concern” and calling for a ceasefire. This tentative language reflects the fact that the conflict has presented China with several awkward problems.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/154940

The Rise of the Putin Doctrine. Josef Joffe, publisher-editor of Die Zeit in Hamburg and senior fellow of Stanford’s Institute for International Studies, writes in a guest essay that Saakashvili is not the main culprit of the invasion, but Russia’s prime minister Vladimir Putin. “It began not on Aug. 8, but in July—with a vast military exercise, ‘Caucasus 2008,’ as dress rehearsal for the invasion. As a flanking maneuver, Moscow handed out thousands of passports to South Ossetians (legally Georgians) to have a nice PR gambit ready: ‘What, aggressors us? We are just protecting the Motherland’s citizens.’ So here we are—at the fourth Russian conquest of Georgia.”

http://www.newsweek.com/id/154937

Chinese and Proud of It. Special Correspondent Solenn Honorine reports on the growing ethnic pride among Southeast Asia’s 30 million ethnic Chinese. The changes in Indonesia—home to the region’s largest community—are particularly pronounced. Thanks to the democratization of Indonesia and the rising power and prestige of China, Chinese communities throughout Southeast Asia are enjoying an unprecedented renaissance, entering the political mainstream, rediscovering their roots and displaying ethnic pride in once unimaginable ways.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/154932

WORLD VIEW: How Not to Punish Moscow. Clifford G. Gaddy, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, writes that politicians from both the right and the left suggest that the best way to make Russia pay for its move into Georgia is through economic measures. This, he argues, is a mistaken approach that would be ineffectual and counterproductive. “The problem is that Putin—still fully in charge in Moscow in his new position—is not only aware of the potential costs of his actions, he is also willing to pay them if need be. Putin recognizes the importance of economic factors in today’s world, and he is committed to building Russia’s economic strength. But it is a means to an end—strategic security—that he will not sacrifice at any price.”

http://www.newsweek.com/id/154969

THE LAST WORD: Asif Ali Zardari, co-chairman of the Pakistan People’s Party. Zardari tells Special Diplomatic Correspondent Lally Weymouth that he would not like to see former president Pervez Musharraf exiled. “Personally I would like him to be around and see us flourish and make Pakistan a success story. I think that would be the revenge of Benazir Bhutto.”

http://www.newsweek.com/id/154927

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